In any other plate appearance, Pete Alonso would hope not to swing at that pitch. It was a slider low and away, nowhere near the strike zone, and yet in a two-strike count, the Orioles’ marquee signing was in swing mode.

For a hitter so feared for his homer-hitting prowess, Alonso is a tactical batter, too. He choked up, then reached out and flicked his hands at right-hander Mick Abel’s offering. Alonso got just enough — and in this instance his softly hit, looping single over the second baseman’s head was just what the Orioles needed.

Baltimore will witness Alonso’s big swings over the course of his contract here. The Orioles will benefit from plenty of moonshots and hard-hit balls. But, when Baltimore’s offense needed a spark in Sunday’s 8-6 series-ending win against the Minnesota Twins, Alonso came through both times.

Alonso’s leadoff single in the fourth got the line moving and made Tyler O’Neill’s three-run home run possible. And his single in the seventh gave the Orioles a lead they built onto with more timely hitting.

“I just think that we were having really good ABs consistently,” Alonso said. “And today, it’s like, all the hard work, all the good approaches, today paid dividends.”

Being that it’s only the third game of the season, overanalysis of an offense can be a dangerous task. But it was undeniable that the Orioles struggled through the first 21 innings of the year, with high strikeout and low run totals. Baltimore squeaked out a 2-1 victory on opening day, then the club fell 4-1 in the second game of the year.

Then came the craziness of Sunday’s finale, which included 10 automatic ball-strike challenges and ended with Twins manager Derek Shelton being ejected in the ninth because he didn’t think closer Ryan Helsley challenged a call quickly enough to count.

It was an impactful moment. Instead of a one-out walk to put two runners on base, Helsley’s hat-tapping overruled home plate umpire Chris Segal’s call. Josh Bell struck out despite already having stood on first base.

“We just want to get it for what it is, get the call for what it is or get the pitch result for whatever it is,” said Alonso, who successfully turned a strike into a ball in the seventh. “I think it’s good for the game. And I think people in the crowd are obviously into it. It’s fun, you know? It’s a different type of baseball.”

It took a while for the Orioles to pour on the runs Sunday. But, when it came, this offense looked as advertised. It helped cover for the four runs right-hander Shane Baz allowed in his debut, along with the game-tying homer Royce Lewis blasted against right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo in the seventh.

Before Alonso’s flailing base hit in the bottom half of the frame, Taylor Ward led off with his first hit since becoming an Oriole over the winter. Gunnar Henderson benefited from the lack of available Twins challenges, because he walked on a ball that should’ve been called a strike.

Those two on base brought Alonso up for a key opportunity, and he came through. Adley Rutschman, serving as a pinch hitter, powered an RBI double to the wall, and Coby Mayo’s line-drive single to left gave Baltimore a three-run edge.

“It was just a matter of time,” O’Neill said. “Our lineup is so deep, a lot of trust in ourselves. It was just a matter of time before [we] put a big swing in the board and got some runs across.”

That late flurry covered for Baz, and it was enough of a cushion to render the eighth-inning run against right-hander Tyler Wells inconsequential.

On Saturday, Baz sat in the bowels of Camden Yards for a news conference announcing his five-year, $68 million extension for a team with whom he had yet to pitch. On Sunday, the right-hander produced a mixed-bag performance that showed evidence of why the Orioles think highly of him and why his potential is still that — potential.

Baz said the extension didn’t add pressure to this start. It may have taken pressure off him, “just being able to forget about it and go play. Now it’s all about baseball, which I love,” he said.

What he didn’t love, Baz said, was the lack of command he displayed with his fastball. But as the game went on his fastball improved and his knuckle curve forced six whiffs.

Baz cruised through his first inning but ran into immediate trouble in the second. The Twins loaded the bases with two knocks and a hit batter, and they took the lead when Trevor Larnach hit a well-placed infield single.

Then Tristan Gray cleared the bases with a three-run double into the right-center gap that eluded O’Neill’s diving attempt.

Baz settled in from there and completed 5 1/3 innings with just those four runs against him. The 26-year-old allowed seven hits but struck out four, and in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a poor outing. He gave Baltimore a chance.

And, with Alonso serving as the impactful bat he was intended to be when the Orioles splashed $155 million to land him, Baltimore displayed the offensive muscle that had been missing from the first two games of the season.

“When they’re staying that way [to the opposite field], that’s when you know they’re kind of feeling better at the plate, not too jumpy,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “With Pete coming through right there, going the other way, that was huge for us.”

This article has been updated.