Gunnar Henderson is arriving at the right time for Baltimore.
The Orioles shortstop snapped out of a quiet stretch in a big way on Sunday, belting his first homers since Aug. 14 and finishing 4-for-4 with a triple and five RBIs in an 8-5 win over the Athletics. That kind of night is exactly what Baltimore wanted to see as it opens a three-game set Monday in Denver against the Colorado Rockies.
Henderson, an All-Star in 2024, has spent most of 2026 well below that level. He was hitting .214 in mid-August, but back-to-back four-hit performances have nudged him up to .223 heading into a visit to Coors Field, where the Orioles will try to keep their push alive in the American League wild-card race.
Baltimore has won seven of its last nine games after sweeping the Athletics and now sits one game behind Cleveland for the final playoff spot. That surge comes after a rough patch that included four straight losses, but the club has talked like a group that feels steadier now.
"We've done such a good job of not pressing and panicking and trying to do too much," said right-hander Shane Baz, who earned the win in Saturday night's victory over the A's.
"It's fun to be in this spot. I think we have all the tools to make a run.
We've got great leadership. We've got a great team with a lot of talent."
Sunday’s win also included a brief scare when Pete Alonso was struck on the brim of the helmet by a fastball. He left the game as a precaution, though he was moving around the dugout without issue.
Colorado, meanwhile, is trying to stop the slide from getting any worse. Rookie Cole Carrigg will not be in the starting lineup Monday, and he did not start in Sunday’s loss at Atlanta either. He did enter as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning and then stayed in the outfield for the rest of the game.
Manager Warren Schaeffer had Carrigg on the bench Sunday, one day after the rookie gave the middle finger to Braves fans following a missed diving catch on a two-run double by Michael Harris II in the eighth inning.
"Cole made a mistake -- he knows that is an embarrassment to the organization and that we don't stand for that," Schaeffer said Sunday. "Listen, everybody makes mistakes.
It's just one that he has to learn from. It's just that we will not put up with that here.
"So he is going to sit a couple days, because he's a guy that wants to play every day. That's the repercussions of this."
The Rockies were swept in Atlanta and have dropped four straight and 11 of 13 since finishing 5-4 on a road trip two weeks ago. Tanner Gordon will get the ball Monday, carrying a 1-4 record and 5.38 ERA into the start. He has never faced Baltimore.
Gordon picked up his first win of the season Wednesday, allowing one run on six hits over seven innings in a 13-1 victory over the Washington Nationals. The Orioles, though, will bring in a hot lineup and a shortstop starting to look dangerous again.
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