Jackson Holliday, Gunnar Henderson power Orioles to 9-5 win over Guardians

CLEVELAND — The Guardians wouldn’t go away quietly.

The Orioles built two early leads Sunday — a three-run advantage in the third inning and a four-run edge in the fourth — and both times Cleveland, MLB’s best team, chipped away to trail by only one.

But Baltimore’s counterpunches were stronger, leading to a 9-5 win.

In the fourth, Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson — two former No. 1 overall prospects — went deep to put the Orioles up 6-2 and provide a cushion for starter Corbin Burnes. After Josh Naylor’s three-run blast, Ryan Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman teamed up with RBI hits in the sixth for welcomed insurance.

The win salvaged a four-game split after the Orioles dropped the series’ first two contests. It also keeps Baltimore (67-46) atop the American League East after entering the matinee in a tie with the New York Yankees, whose game Sunday has yet to conclude.

Holliday’s homer off Cleveland starter Gavin Williams was his second in five games since he rejoined the Orioles on Wednesday. It wasn’t a mammoth grand slam like the first, but it cleared the right field wall at Progressive Field and put Baltimore up 4-2.

The 20-year-old rookie looks like a different player now than during his first stint in the majors. He recorded only two hits in 34 at-bats in April. He’s now done so in each of his past three games, most of them scorchers hit harder than 95 mph.

Henderson’s two-run shot off Williams, who gave up a career-high six runs in his 23rd MLB start, was the AL Most Valuable Player candidate’s 29th long ball of the season but first of the second half. Despite the power outage, the 23-year-old shortstop still entered the contest hitting .300 with a solid .791 OPS since he started the All-Star Game and participated in the Home Run Derby. Now batting in the No. 3 hole, Henderson reached base in each of his four plate appearances Sunday.

Henderson sparked the rally in the sixth with a line drive single to right field, moving leadoff hitter Colton Cowser to third after the AL Rookie of the Year front-runner extended his hitting streak to 17 games — tied with Trey Mancini in 2017 for the Orioles’ rookie record.

Manager Brandon Hyde then brought in Mountcastle, who delivered with a pinch-hit bloop single to score Cowser. The RBI knock marked the third straight hit from one of Hyde’s pinch hitters after Rutschman and Ryan O’Hearn came through clutch in Saturday’s win. Rutschman, starting behind the plate for the series finale, continued to emerge from his slump by driving in Henderson with a 98 mph double to right field to put the Orioles up 8-5.

For the first time this season, Baltimore’s bats were tasked with bailing their ace — and they did. After tallying 15 hits in a win Saturday for the first time since June 20, the offense did it again Sunday. Eight batters tallied a knock, with Cowser, Henderson, Rutschman, Holliday and Eloy Jiménez each recording multihit games.

Burnes (12-4) delivered his worst start as an Oriole by allowing five runs (four earned) in five innings, with Naylor’s homer following a two-out infield single serving as perhaps the biggest hit off the ace this season. The fact that four earned runs in five frames, allowing seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts, is undoubtedly Burnes’ worst start of the season is perhaps the strongest case for why he’s a viable AL Cy Young Award candidate.

The right-hander last allowed five or more runs in a start on Aug. 23 as a Milwaukee Brewer. Sunday’s outing ended his streak of 17 straight starts of at least six innings — a stretch matched by only five other pitchers in Orioles history: Mike Mussina (1998), Jim Palmer (1973), Dave McNally (1970), Mike Boddicker (1984) and Hoyt Wilhelm (1959). Burnes also recorded the 1,000th strikeout of his career in the start, doing so in only 853 career innings.

Gregory Soto, Burch Smith, Cionel Pérez, Yennier Cano and Seranthony Domínguez combined to throw four scoreless innings to finish the win.

This story will be updated.

Orioles at Blue Jays

Tuesday, 7:07 p.m.

TV: MASN2

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

Gunnar Henderson #2 of the Baltimore Orioles celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on Aug. 04, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)