Sellout crowd celebrates 1983 Orioles team and 2023's latest victory (updated)

A capacity crowd stood and cheered players from the 1983 championship team as they walked onto the field in a pregame ceremony, with the loudest ovations aimed at the three Hall of Famers. Fans chanted Eddie Murray’s name like the old days. Rick Dempsey waved a towel over his head, tossed it to the ground, lifted his arms and spelled out O-R-I-O-L-E-S.

He wasn’t a solo act.

The home venue sounded like old Memorial Stadium tonight, the clock spun back 40 years. Murray, Cal Ripken Jr. and Jim Palmer threw out the ceremonial first pitches. Highlights from the season were played on the video board between innings.

The current Orioles soaked in the nostalgia, watching from the dugout along with team executive Mike Elias, then set out again to leave their own mark.

It’s usually black and blue on an opponent.

Gunnar Henderson hit a two-run homer in the first inning, Anthony Santander reached the flag court in the fifth, and the Orioles defeated the Mets 7-3 before an announced crowd of 44,326 to lock up their 22^nd series win.

Kyle Gibson allowed three runs in seven innings for his 100^th career win, and his 13^th quality start of the season, and the Orioles moved a season-high 27 games above .500 at 69-42.

The last four starts have fit the quality requirements. He surrendered four hits tonight, walked one batter, struck out nine, threw 98 pitches and left to a standing ovation.

Asked about the significance of 100 victories, Gibson smiled and said, "It's cool. Anytime you get to a milestone that's close to 100, pretty cool, yeah. Get a chance to look back and realize it's been a long road to get here. I told the guys after the game, I think I've got (97) losses, so glad to get to 100 wins before 100 losses.

"I've never been a pitcher that goes out there and racks up strikeouts, and just puts the whole game on me. So, 100 wins has a lot to do with the teams I've been around and the offense doing their job and giving me the leeway to go out and work like I did tonight."

Danny Coulombe tossed a scoreless eighth, with left fielder Colton Cowser throwing out Brandon Nimmo trying to stretch a single into a double. Félix Bautista was warming in preparation for his 30th save, but Cowser singled in the bottom of the eighth, stole his first career base and scored on Adley Rutschman's two-out double for a 7-3 lead.

Yennier Cano stranded a runner in the ninth, and the Orioles moved a season-high three games ahead of the second-place Rays in the American League East.

"What a great atmosphere tonight," said manager Brandon Hyde. "The energy in the ballpark the entire game was fantastic. It's fun to see that top deck in left field filled. It was super loud, we're playing exciting baseball, and our guys are feeding off it."

Gibson retired the first nine batters with six strikeouts, but Nimmo led off the fourth with a double and Jeff McNeil homered to reduce the lead to 3-2. McNeil also had an RBI single in the sixth after Francisco Lindor’s two-out fly ball fell in shallow right field.

They couldn’t dump on the Orioles’ party.

Tonight’s outcome was the sixth win in the last seven games, 10^th in 14 and 20^th in 27.

"I'm not getting too ahead of myself, honestly," Hyde said. "Stay game-to-game, and just want us to play well the rest of the way and worry about tomorrow's game at 1:35.

"Just one foot in front of the other right now and taking it game to game."

Rutschman singled to lead off the bottom of the first and Henderson launched Tylor Megill’s changeup 422 feet to center field. Henderson swung, stood, watched and tossed the bat as the crowd erupted again.

Moved back to the present, which is supplying its own memories.

Henderson's 19 homers are tied for second-most by an Orioles player in the first 100 games of his rookie season, per ESPN Stats & Info. Trey Mancini holds the record with 20 in 2017.

"This team is just very different from any team I've been on with how many young guys that are so good at this game," Gibson said.

Santander doubled with two outs in the third and scored on Ryan O’Hearn’s second single of the night, his 38th RBI to tie his career high. Jordan Westburg and Ramón Urías doubled in the fourth. Santander got ahead 3-0 in the fifth and drove Megill’s fastball 406 feet for his team-leading 20^th home run.

A pose was struck similar to Henderson’s, with Santander tracking the flight and flipping his bat. His hardest-hit homer this season at 108 mph.

Cowser walked to lead off the sixth and scored on Ryan McKenna’s double.

"We have a lot of hitters in the lineup that understand the strike zone, know the strike zone, understand how to take team at-bats, understand that every at-bat is a situation," Hyde said. "We're passing the baton on to the next guy. That's really the attitude right now. We're getting some big hits. I love the way we're running the bases, I love the defense we're playing. Every single guy is hard out of the batter's box. We're playing exciting baseball."

Every swing turned up the volume a few more notches, testing the limits. The crowd of 44,326 was the largest for a non-home opener since May 20, 2017 against the Blue Jays.

"Awesome. It's really fun having the fans to support us," Santander said.

"Having those big names right there, World Series champions, is really awesome to motivate us to keep battling."

"Oh man, what a time," Gibson said. "Anytime you can celebrate a World Series team, you get a lot of people in the stands and you already have a buzz going on. A lot of big names and a lot of cool people in the stands, too. A lot of baseball people who accomplished way more in this game than we have. And to have them in the building and to have so many people out here celebrating just adds to it."

* Jorge Mateo made his 13^th career appearance in center field and his first since 2021 with the Padres.

* The Orioles are concentrating on keeping their pitchers strong for the stretch run, working to manage innings in a pennant race, but position players also need breaks.

Hyde isn’t keen on duplicating his lineups. He sat Mateo, Austin Hays and Adam Frazier tonight. Westburg stayed away from the bench after reaching base four times last night, including a three-run homer.

More changes are expected for Sunday’s finale.

“I think they’ve all handled it extremely well,” Hyde said this afternoon. “All these guys come ready to play every day, and we’re kind of in that part of the season where there’s a lot of bumps and bruises going on in our clubhouse, especially after coming off the turf in Toronto, four days in Toronto. Santander was out yesterday, Haysey’s out today, Frazier’s been out.

“There’s a lot of long games, turf, kind of beats you up a little bit. So, I think the way we’re rotating, keeping guys as fresh as possible, it’s gone extremely well. And our guys have handled it very well.”

* Left-hander DL Hall returned to Triple-A Norfolk today and tossed two scoreless relief innings with one hit and five strikeouts in the opening game of a doubleheader. His fastball climbed into the upper 90s.

Robbie Glendinning hit his sixth home run. Connor Norby and Josh Lester each had two hits and two RBIs. Heston Kjerstad delivered his third triple.

Kyle Stowers hit his 10th home run in the nightcap.

Tyler Wells worked 3 1/3 innings in his start at Double-A Bowie and allowed one run, on Nick Yorke’s homer, and two hits. He walked one batter, struck out two, and threw 35 of 53 pitches for strikes.

Cedric Mullins led off and went 1-for-6 with a run scored.

Jackson Holliday singled three times and hit his second home run, and Jacob Teter hit his first.

Down in the Florida Complex League, first-round pick Enrique Bradfield Jr. went 2-for-4 with a walk and run scored. Carter Baumler tossed two scoreless innings with one hit and four strikeouts.