ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Gunnar Henderson began the Orioles’ road trip — perhaps the club’s most important stretch of the season — 0 for 14 with three strikeouts.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he flipped a switch. In two of the past three games, Henderson has played like the superstar he used to be and the Orioles believe he still is.
In Tuesday’s win over the Twins, Henderson went 3 for 5 and was a triple away from the cycle. On Friday, the shortstop did it again, going 4 for 4 with a double and a two-run homer to propel the Orioles to a 6-5 win over a Tampa Bay Rays team that entered with the best record in MLB.
The Rays entered Friday’s series opener on a nine-game winning streak — all out west for one of the most impressive road trips in MLB history. The Rays became only the second MLB team to go undefeated on a road trip of at least nine games all in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, joining the 1977 Boston Red Sox.
Somehow, coming back home to face an Orioles team that’s had trouble getting out of its own way all season — especially over the past week — is what finally caused the Rays (74-47) to stumble. Henderson playing like one of the best players in baseball, which he was from 2023 to 2025, certainly makes it harder to face Baltimore, even with its deficiencies.
While the Orioles’ bullpen was stellar up into the ninth inning, it’s never easy against the Rays, especially at Tropicana Field. With a 6-2 lead, Yennier Cano gave up three runs in the ninth while recording only two outs. Manager Craig Albernaz went to Cam Sanders with two outs, intentionally walked Liam Hicks in a rare move to put the potential winning run on base and watched as the right-hander got a flyout from Ryan Vilade on his first pitch.
Baltimore is 59-63 and temporarily only one game back of the third and final wild-card spot in the mediocre American League. A Texas Rangers win Friday night would push the Orioles to 1 1/2 games back.
Henderson’s monstrous game Friday coincidentally came with him hitting lower in the batting order than he has since Sept. 28, 2023 — when the Orioles clinched the AL East title with a win over the Boston Red Sox at Camden Yards. Since that day, Henderson has exclusively batted in the top four of the order in every game he’s started, including this season as he’s struggled with an OPS below .700 for most of the year.
Albernaz has consistently defended his placement of Henderson near the top of the order because of the skipper’s belief in someone who is supposed to be his best hitter. Albernaz only moved Henderson down in the order Friday because the Rays used left-hander Steven Matz as an opener, so the first-year manager led off Pete Alonso — the slugger’s first time atop the order in his MLB career — and moved Henderson down to the No. 5 spot to avoid Matz.
It worked, as the Orioles scored a run in the second inning off bulk reliever Jesse Scholtens thanks in part to Henderson, who singled Tyler O’Neill to third to set up Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s sacrifice fly. Henderson singled again in the fourth and then doubled to lead off the sixth off left-hander Garrett Cleavinger.
Henderson’s two-bagger created a chain that led to a flurry of managerial moves between Albernaz and Rays skipper Kevin Cash — a chess match that Albernaz won when he pinch-hit for Dylan Beavers with the bases loaded and the young outfielder came through with a go-ahead two-run single, including Henderson as the eventual winning run.
The Orioles’ 4-2 lead wouldn’t have been enough for the bullpen that followed starting pitcher Chris Bassitt, who tossed 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball in his return from the injured list. But Henderson made sure the pen had more cushion to prevent the Rays’ magic. In the eighth inning, Henderson launched his 20th homer of the season to put Baltimore up 6-2 and his OPS above .701 for the first time since July 4.
Bassitt gave up an RBI double to former Richie Palacios in the second and an RBI single to Victor Mesa Jr. in the third to bring the game back to a tie after the Orioles’ offense took the lead. The Mesa single followed a strange five-minute delay by the umpires about whether a base stealer should be sent back to first base after an ABS challenge overturned a walk, but the crew decided it shouldn’t, and Mesa drove home the runner shortly after the interregnum. While Bassitt was far from dominant, he was sharp and looked like himself after recovering from minor back surgery.
Relievers Josh Walker, Andrew Kittredge and Rico Garcia combined to toss 2 2/3 scoreless innings, but Cano nearly melted down in the ninth. A double-steal by speedsters Jorge Mateo, a former Oriole in his first game with the Rays, and Chandler Simpson gave the Rays the tying run on second base with superstar Junior Caminero at the plate. Cano got Caminero to ground out, and Albernaz went with Sanders, a cash trade acquisition in mid-July, for the one-out save.