Manager Brandon Hyde on the O's recently prolific offense

In winning their last four games, the Tampa Bay Rays did gain one game on the Orioles. But chopping into Baltimore’s division lead – a lead the O's first took July 20 - has been a challenge for the Rays.

They remained three games out and the Orioles reduced their magic number to clinch the division to 16 with last night’s 11-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The O’s trailed by 4-2 in the third inning and by 5-3 heading to the last of the fifth. But two batters after Ryan O’Hearn’s double pulled the O’s within a run, Cedric Mullins' grand slam gave them an 8-5 lead. It was Mullins' second slam of the year and third of his career.

They won the series opener 11-5 and are now 91-52 with 19 games to play. The Orioles remain on a 103-win pace. They could go 9-10 the rest of the way and still win 100.

The Baltimore offense – which has been relentless recently – was that again last night.

For the fourth time in the last five games, the Orioles scored 10 or more runs. For the eighth time in the last nine games, they had 10 or more hits.

The Orioles have scored:

* 48 runs the last five games.

* 74 runs the last nine games.

* 155 runs the last 22 games.

In those 22 games they are averaging 7.05 runs per game on 11.0 hits per game. The team batting average has jumped from .251 to start this stretch to .259 now.

In the 22 games, O's hitters are batting .304/.364/.494/.859 with 85 extra-base hits to include 50 doubles, four triples and 31 home runs. 

They have scored seven or more runs 12 times in the last 22 games and nine or more runs eight times in that time.

Before Monday’s series opener, manager Brandon Hyde was asked what is making the club’s offense so prolific recently?

“I think our lineup is pretty deep. And our lineup is deep when we swing at strikes and make pitchers work,” added Hyde. “We had that one game where we hit a lot of homers but besides that not really. It’s been more of a keep-the-line moving attitude.

“I think we are doing a great job of putting the ball in play with two strikes. Putting pressure on the defense. We only had a couple of games (on the road trip) where we didn’t swing the bat very well. One was (Sunday) in brutal conditions.

“Really, we are just being very competitive at the plate and we’re doing a good job on the bases. It’s really an unselfish mentality right now offensively and for me that’s how we keep rallies going.

“Like I’ve said a lot this year, we have had a tough time kind of stepping on teams and increasing leads and those type of things. But we did a much better job of that this road trip of getting into the bullpen and continuing to score.”

They scored in five of their eight at-bats last night and went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

For the year the Orioles as a team are batting .289 with runners in scoring position to rank first in MLB and they also rank as the MLB team leader in slugging with RISP at .492 and in OPS at .850.

O’s rookie Gunnar Henderson went 3-for-5 in the win and hit his 25^th homer to give them a 9-5 lead in the sixth. Just three players in O’s history have hit 25 or more doubles and homers as a rookie. Eddie Murray in 1977, Cal Ripken Jr. in 1982 and now Henderson this year. The first two won the Rookie of the Year Award.

Gunnar is keeping the best possible company here.

Henderson is the fourth O’s rookie in team history with 25 homers and first since Ryan Mountcastle set a rookie record with 33 in 2021.

Also, before last night’s game, Anthony Santander talked about an offense that recently has scored 10, 11, 13 and 11 in the past five games.

“We have been swinging at good pitches. If you are not coming into the strike zone, we’re taking our walks. We are competing from the first to the ninth hitter. That has been a key. If someone doesn’t do the job, the guy behind can do the job and that’s pretty good,” he said.

Catcher Adley Rutschman walked twice in the win, and it was his 18^th multi-walk game of the year. That is the most by any Oriole since Nick Markakis had 19 in 2008.