CLEVELAND — In the top of the seventh inning, it felt as if the Orioles had hit rock bottom.

After Cleveland reliever Hunter Gaddis ran through the Baltimore side on three consecutive swinging strikeouts, Gunnar Henderson threw his bat across the turf and slammed his helmet right after it. With three straight losses at its back, the punchless offense was getting frustrating.

For the second straight night, the Orioles struggled to scratch runs across. One day removed from being no-hit through eight innings, they had plenty of runners Friday — but no darn luck.

That changed in the eighth.

After Cleveland opened a 4-0 lead with a grand slam in the seventh, the Guardians quickly surrendered it as Baltimore took advantage of a floundering bullpen with a six-run rally. It was capped by a Jeremiah Jackson homer — his fifth in his last seven games — to put the Orioles up for good in a 6-4 win.

If the Orioles have proved anything over the last two nights, it is that their bats can heat up in a hurry.

“That’s the definition of our team right there,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “We don’t quit.”

Whereas Thursday they were silent, on Friday, Baltimore managed a few hits — without stringing them together. Before the eighth-inning surge, the Orioles left seven runners on base. Both teams struggled to score, taking a 0-0 game into the seventh.

For starter Chris Bassitt, that was a welcome reprieve. He stitched together his first scoreless start since signing with Baltimore during the offseason, escaping from a first-inning jam when he loaded the bases with just one out. After a pop-up and a groundout saved him from having to pitch from behind, Bassitt wound up with his best start so far, despite giving up four walks and four hits in five innings.

“I couldn’t find the strike zone early,” Bassitt said. “Other than that, I had a couple other walks, but some of them were kind of just being smart. Sammy [Basallo], I thought caught a really good game, and we were just able to execute just enough.”

The bottom of the seventh was when it started to go wrong for Baltimore’s pitching unit. After a leadoff error by Jackson on a grounder up the middle, Grant Wolfram allowed a double by Chase DeLauter. The Orioles intentionally walked José Ramírez, preferring to let someone else beat them after the perennial All-Star homered in the first game.

The guy who wound up making them pay was Daniel Schneelmann, who blasted an Anthony Nunez fastball into the right-center bleachers. Given how the Orioles had struggled to hit in the past few games, a late 4-0 lead felt tough to overcome.

But then the Guardians sent out Shawn Armstrong to pitch with the lead, which was a mistake. Armstrong threw just 13 pitches, 10 of which were balls, loading the bases with two walks and a hit by pitch.

When manager Stephen Vogt called in lefty Erik Sabrowski, Albernaz countered with subs for right-handed hitters. The gambit worked: Jonathan Rodríguez hit a sacrifice fly, and Weston Wilson batted in two more runs with a double off the left field wall.

Albernaz said he would have made the subs regardless of whom he was managing against, but it was a bit more satisfying to get the better of Vogt, whom he coached with in Cleveland the last two years.

“We were looking at each other and giving ourselves some smirks going back and forth,” he said. “It’s still baseball; it’s still fun. Obviously, they made moves and we made moves. But luckily we came out today on the right side.”

When Jackson smashed his home run, it set up the Orioles for their first win since Monday over the Arizona Diamondbacks — a game in which Jackson knocked two homers. It helped make up for his miscue in the seventh, when he botched a glove transfer on a routine ground ball by Steven Kwan.

Jackson is on a career-best heater, with 12 hits in his last 28 at-bats with a 1.036 slugging percentage. Yet, if he had told himself two years ago he would be playing this well, he said, he would have believed it.

“I always knew that I could have some success,” he said. “Obviously you look at the careers a lot of us had in the minors, but I always knew it was possible. So for me it’s making the most of the opportunities, being where my feet are and playing a good nine innings of baseball.”

The Orioles are expected to start Dean Kremer on Saturday as they look to go up in the series.

Injury updates for Rutschman, O’Neill, Holliday

Although Adley Rutschman and Tyler O’Neill were taking batting practice in Cleveland on Friday afternoon, it was unfortunately not a sign of an impending return for either player.

Rutschman spoke to reporters for the first time since he hit the injured list with left ankle inflammation, which has sidelined him for a week. He is back to running and doing drills and caught a side session for Trevor Rogers, Albernaz said, but the Orioles haven’t decided yet if he’ll need a rehab assignment.

O’Neill is traveling with the club for the four-game series in Cleveland, but Albernaz said he would not be cleared this weekend from concussion protocol. Although O’Neill is doing “much better,” he added, caution reigns for his injury.

“He still has some boxes to check,” Albernaz said. “With a concussion, it’s very touch and go, so each day we’re just kind of taking inventory of how he’s feeling, and we’ll set a plan as he gets back to himself.”

The Orioles are waiting for the season debut of Jackson Holliday, who has taken longer than expected to recover from hamate bone surgery in February. His father, Matt Holliday, said on his podcast that Jackson was experiencing soreness on the opposite side of his wrist from his surgery.

Albernaz said he didn’t think that was unusual for that surgery, and in conversations with Holliday, “he’s in a great mental space.” Holliday is scheduled for a pair of games for Single-A Frederick on Saturday and Sunday.

This article has been updated.