Henderson homers and Mayo collects first hit in Orioles' 4-1 win (updated)

Gunnar Henderson raised the bat above his head and looked toward right field as if calling his shot after making contact. This was his reaction to a blast that used to be more common in the first half. A power pose that he’d like to bring back more frequently.

Henderson demolished a first-pitch four-seamer from DJ Herz in the opening inning, his 30^th home run landing on Eutaw Street and staking the Orioles to an early lead.

Coby Mayo lined a single into left field leading off the fifth and ditched his bat as quickly as possible. No time to admire his first major league hit. Bolt out of the box, reach first base and soak in the standing ovation.

Dean Kremer had his own moments tonight with six innings of one-run ball, and the Orioles gained a split of the series with a 4-1 win over the Nationals before an announced crowd of 26,479 at Camden Yards.

Yennier Cano, Cionel Pérez and Seranthony Domínguez combined for three scoreless and hitless innings, and the Orioles improved to 71-50. They remain a half-game behind the Yankees.

Domínguez notched his second save with the club and has allowed only one run in nine innings.

 “It felt like a normal baseball game," said manager Brandon Hyde. "We haven’t played many of them, I felt like, where we pitched really well, we were solid defensive, and we got, Gunnar with a huge hit early and then a nice little rally there late in the game. We haven’t played many clean games, and so it was great to get the pitching performance that we did out of Dean. His best performance of the year for me going six innings and only allowing that one run. And it was great to see our bullpen guys come in and have clean innings and do a really good job.

"That was more of what I’d like to see.”

Henderson hit his second home run in his last 24 games, the ball traveling 419 feet at 113.1 mph. Austin Slater reached on a bunt single in his first game in Baltimore, Adley Rutschman flied out and Henderson gave the Orioles a 2-0 lead, with bat held aloft as he began walking to first base. The only question was whether he cleared the flag court.

"I’m glad to kind of get over that little hump. I’m starting to feel really good in the box," he said.

“It’s been tough, yeah. I felt like I was making a lot of right moves to put myself in a good position to succeed. Just had a weird little run there, but like I said, I’m starting to feel good in the box and starting to get going.”

Mayo was 0-for-16 with 10 strikeouts since his promotion. He lined to left field in the second inning and pulled a 1-0 slider into left in the fifth, making the turning-on-the-faucet gesture to the dugout and slapping his hands together.

“He can breathe now,” Kremer said. “Everybody’s happy for him. We all congratulated him after the game. He can breathe now and I’m sure things will start rolling for him pretty soon.” 

Nationals first baseman Andrés Chaparro, who collected three doubles last night in his debut, tossed the ball to Eloy Jiménez. Of course, Jiménez pretended to throw it into the stands, one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Double-A Bowie hitting coach Sherman Johnson, who worked with Mayo in the past, got to witness the single because the Orioles brought him to Camden Yards to assist with the instruction.

"A sigh of relief, for sure," said Mayo said, whose parents were in the stands. "I was never too stressed about the hit. But then, it gets to you a little bit and you want it. You want it so bad because you’re so competitive. And then, you get that first hit. I think, honestly, it came with that first play in the first inning. A backhand tough play, and just to get that out, it gave me a little bit of confidence in that moment and that kind of set me up for the whole game.

"I don’t think anyone in here was too stressed about what was going on. I think they trust me, and this coaching staff and this organization as a whole has done a great job throughout the minor leagues of preparing us for this moment. Struggling comes with every level. If you don’t struggle at first, you’re going to struggle at some point. Hopefully, this is the right step forward and this can keep going."

Mayo never intended to stop. He knew how to leave any struggles behind him, an advanced attitude from a young prospect.

"I think once you kind of go in that shower, you’re flushing away the game," Mayo said. "It sounds silly, but that water hitting you is releasing everything that happened today. You can sit back for a moment and think about the game a little bit, but you’ve got to just take one game at a time. Once the game’s over, you can’t dwell on it too much. There’s a game the next day."

Colton Cowser and Mayo drew back-to-back walks off left-hander Robert Garcia in the seventh and Jackson Holliday lined a single up the middle at 104.1 mph for a 3-1 lead. Jacob Barnes entered and was nailed by pinch-hitter Ryan O’Hearn’s 103.7 mph comebacker that went for an infield single, and Mayo scored his second major league run on Rutschman’s sacrifice fly.

“Anytime a young player gets their first hit, you can see their relief in his face there at first base," Hyde said of Mayo. "And another good at-bat with a walk. Made a couple nice plays defensively, too. So yeah, we’re all happy for him.”

Kremer allowed a run in the second inning on Alex Call’s two-out double that scored Luis García Jr. Anthony Santander ran down the ball at the track, but it popped out of his glove.

Keibert Ruiz singled with two outs in the fourth inning and raced to third base on Call’s double to left field on a chopper over the infield. Ildemaro Vargas grounded out to keep the Orioles ahead.

Kremer’s pitch count reached 63 through the fourth. He threw 11 in the first, 10 for strikes, and was at 27 total (21 for strikes) after the second.

Juan Yepez singled with two outs in the fifth and was stranded. Chaparro drew a 10-pitch walk leading off the sixth and was caught stealing to leave Kremer at 92 pitches with five hits allowed and his fifth quality start.

One of his best outings?

“Numbers-wise, I’d agree with you,” Kremer said. “Sometimes the line doesn’t always go that way. In terms of feeling-wise, I feel like I’ve thrown well a handful of times. Things just haven’t gone my way, but tonight was all-inclusive. Team effort was a lot like last year where it was timely hitting, good defense and everything under the sun. The bullpen came in and closed it out.”

“He’s getting more and more confident with that split, his split he can throw to righties and lefties," Hyde said. "It’s amazing cause he picked that up in the offseason and it’s already becoming a pitch that he has a ton of confidence with. And I feel like he’s throwing it more and more, with a good cutter, and he can step on 95 when he wants to, too. He mixed pitches really well and did a great job.”

Henderson walked on 11 pitches in the sixth but didn’t advance. In the end, it didn’t matter.

Hyde was able to set up his bullpen as he desired, including Domínguez again in a save situation. Asked what he saw that made him choose Domínguez over Craig Kimbrel, Hyde responded with, “I saw 99 with a slider."

"He’s been pitching the end of the game here for a couple weeks. Hopefully we can get Craig going. But he’s been doing a really good job for us since we got him at the deadline," Hyde added.

“Cano there, they got two out of three righties, and him having a clean inning, which allowed Pérez then to have a clean inning. That’s been a little bit of the issue, honestly, is we’re not having clean innings out of the bullpen or with the starter, bringing in somebody with traffic. We’re pretty one-sided, so Cano is better versus righties, Pérez is better versus left, and so when they can line change on you or you don’t have clean innings, it becomes way more challenging. So when those guys go out and get the three guys out that they should, then it allows us to line up a lot better.”

* A scoring change from Friday night’s game at Tropicana Field removed a hit from James McCann in the fifth inning and gave an error to Rays second baseman Christopher Morel.

* Double-A Bowie’s Samuel Basallo, playing first base tonight, was removed from the game in the first inning after being hit by a pitch on his left forearm. He slammed his bat to the ground and bent over in pain before his removal.

Peter Van Loon struck out eight batters in 4 1/3 scoreless innings.

Left-hander Cole Irvin started for Triple-A Norfolk and allowed two earned runs (three total) and three hits with four walks and three strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. He threw 76 pitches.

Nick Maton doubled and hit his 14th home run. He also retired the only batter he faced in emergency relief.

High-A Aberdeen’s Zach Fruit allowed one run and one hit with six strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings and has a 3.24 ERA.