Orioles mash 3 homers en route to a 7-3 victory over the Nationals

All weekend, the Orioles’ staff and hitters stressed that they’ve been happy with their at-bats. They were hitting baseballs hard. They were confident that, even if the scoreboard hadn’t shown it, those balls would eventually drop.

Nationals manager Blake Butera hoped to keep it that way, using a few early twists to keep Baltimore’s lineup off balance. His intentions were rooted in logic. Yet his pitchers’ inability to execute meant his plan backfired. The Orioles’ hitters took advantage, mashing three homers en route to a 7-3 victory at Nationals Park on Sunday to avoid a sweep.

“Our guys, they didn’t waver in the clubhouse,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. “They know they’re putting good swings on and barreling up the ball and hitting it hard. You hope eventually they’ll also find some holes, and today we did.”

Despite Gunnar Henderson’s early-season struggles, he’s still the most feared bat in the Orioles’ lineup. So Butera used lefty Richard Lovelady as an opener to neutralize Henderson, who has worse career numbers against lefties. This season, though, Lovelady has performed worse against lefties than righties, posting a .345/.441/.414 slash line.

That trend continued when Henderson hit a third-deck, solo homer, earning himself a red seat for the exclusive group of hitters who have launched one that high.

“Over the course of his career, [Lovelady’s] been much better against lefties than righties,” Butera said. “I know this season it’s been a little bit opposite. [We] still want him to match up against lefties, have confidence in him to get lefties out, and I think that it’ll come together.”

Albernaz said his team often goes as the 24-year-old shortstop goes. The Orioles led the rest of the way.

“With Gunnar doing what he did right there, he set the tone,” Albernaz said. “That was a pretty majestic home run to start the game, especially left on left, too, so it was really impressive.”

The following frame, Butera brought in Miles Mikolas — the team’s intended Sunday starter — to face the right-handed Coby Mayo, who entered the contest batting .145 with a .430 OPS against righties.

Once again, the logic was sound. But Mayo fouled off five pitches to extend the at-bat. Mikolas left a sinker over the heart of the plate. Mayo launched a two-run homer into the left field seats to extend Baltimore’s lead to 3-0.

“I thought I had him in swing mode, and that’s a situation where I really didn’t want to throw him a strike,” said Mikolas, who allowed four runs on six hits with four strikeouts and one walk. “That ball didn’t run in as much as I wanted [it] to.”

Mikolas said he felt a little out of rhythm in the beginning of his outing. He said he was too quick in certain spots or too slow.

Jacob Young’s homer cut the Nationals’ deficit to 3-1 in the bottom of the second, but Mikolas struggled with traffic on the bases all afternoon. In the third, he allowed a leadoff walk to Taylor Ward and a single to Henderson to put runners on first and third with no outs. The Orioles capitalized on a sacrifice fly by Pete Alonso to make it 4-1.

In the fourth, the Orioles (21-26) tacked on a pair of runs on Colton Cowser’s first home run of the year, which led to his teammates jokingly giving him the silent treatment in the dugout.

“We’ve had a lot of quality at-bats these past couple days, and it was just a matter of just starting to string them together,” Cowser said. “Balls started to fall today and, honestly, it was just one of our more complete wins this year, it feels like. A really good showing.”

Mikolas threw a season-high 5 2/3 innings, which the Nationals needed amid a stretch of 16 games without a day off.

The Orioles entered Sunday’s contest ranking third in the majors in hard-hit percentage (42.6%). That hasn’t always resulted in runs. They rank 19th in barrel percentage (7.6%), which measures hard contact that is in the air. They finally found the proper balance.

The Nationals, meanwhile, present a slightly different profile as an offense, ranking 18th in hard-hit percentage but 10th in barrel percentage, a significant improvement from years prior. Improving their swing decisions has been a priority throughout the organization.

Young, for example, has as many homers this season as he had in his first three combined.

In the bottom half of the fourth, the Nationals (23-24) finally put pressure on Orioles starter Brandon Young. A Daylen Lile leadoff single followed by back-to-back walks by Jacob Young and José Tena loaded the bases. But, unlike Saturday’s stellar offensive showing, the Nationals couldn’t deliver that big hit.

Keibert Ruiz drove in a run on a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 6-2. Nasim Nuñez was called out on strikes for the second out, but James Wood singled to load the bases again.

Anthony Nunez replaced Young to face Luis García Jr. and struck him out to end the inning.

The Nationals finished 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.

“I thought we did a good job of getting [runners on base],” Butera said. “We just couldn’t have that big inning today.”

Through the first two games, Baltimore had 30 hard-hit balls, classified as balls in play hit at 95 mph or higher. It had only five runs to show for it. On Sunday, Baltimore added another 15 hard-hit balls.

“Like I said the other day, I feel like our at-bats have been good,” Henderson said. “It’s just a matter of baseball. It’s just riding the ups and downs. And I feel like, if we just keep having at-bats like this, we’re going to get on a pretty good run here.”

Henderson led the charge, collecting four hits that registered at 100 mph or higher. In his final at-bat, he hit an RBI single up the middle at 100.3 mph. Finally, on an afternoon when a scuffling offense needed a boost, the process and results aligned in the Orioles’ favor.

“I’ve felt like I’ve had good at-bats the past about five days,” Henderson said. “It was starting to get frustrating, I’m not going to lie, because you feel good and then it’s like, ‘All right, well the hits are supposed to come.’ But baseball’s just a funny game. You’ve just got to stick with it.”

This article has been updated.