The Orioles have lost three starters from their rotation due to a surgery, injury and illness. Chris Bassitt is fine. He just had to pitch better.

Bassitt gave the Orioles exactly what they needed in Game 1 of their doubleheader – length and results. The veteran right-hander tossed six scoreless innings before allowing a two-out run in the seventh, and Adley Rutschman and Jeremiah Jackson hit grand slams in a 10-3 victory over the Astros at Camden Yards.

The record is back to .500 at 15-15 with Game 2 approaching.

Rutschman’s slam is the third of his career and gave the Orioles a 5-0 lead in the fifth. Leody Taveras delivered the most recent in Kansas City.

Jackson had a run-scoring double in the fourth, and his slam off Jason Alexander in the seventh followed a bases-loaded walk to Dylan Beavers. Five straight batters reached with two outs, and Jackson cleared the left field fence for his sixth homer to go with a team-leading 24 RBIs.

His first career slam came on April 13. The Orioles have four this season.

The Orioles have hit multiple slams in a game eight times in club history, the last before today on Sept. 11, 2015 against the Royals with catcher Steve Clevenger and outfielder Nolan Reimold.

Jackson’s first happened after his line drive in the dugout nailed manager Craig Albernaz on the side of the face.

“I always told him, too, I go, ‘Hey, whenever you need it. You have my left side of my face, too, if you want to get something going,'” Albernaz quipped. “But that was a great swing by J.J.”

Bassitt struck out four of the first seven batters to establish a season high, and he finished with seven to go with one run, seven hits and a walk in 6 2/3. The first four strikeouts came on his sweeper, four-seam fastball, sinker and curveball.

The defense was outstanding behind him. Rutschman threw out Jose Altuve trying to steal in the second inning. First baseman Pete Alonso made a lunging stop along the line in the fourth and flipped to Bassitt to deny Yordan Álvarez. Isaac Paredes singled, and Jackson dived to his left to corral Christian Walker’s grounder and threw to second base for the force.

Coby Mayo lunged to his left to glove Altuve’s hot shot leading off the seventh while Rico Garcia warmed. Garcia stranded two inherited runner to give him 11 without allowing anyone to score.

Astros starter Peter Lambert didn’t allow a hit until Jackson’s 100.2 mph line drive down the left field line with two outs in the fourth. Alonso, who walked, scored on the double and the Orioles led 1-0.

The second hit off Lambert also was a double, from Alexander with one out in the fifth inning. Alexander has two extra-base hits this season, and he was Lambert’s last batter today.

Henderson greeted Steven Okert with a check-swing single down the third base line. Taylor Ward walked to load the bases and Rutschman cleared them with his fourth homer. He singled in the seventh and is batting .356 with 17 RBIs and a 1.067 OPS.

Good health and a good approach are doing wonders for Rutschman.

“Unfortunately, I’ve seen that on the other side a lot, so I kind of have expectations for Adley,” Bassitt said. “But yeah, he’s obviously living up to them. He’s world class when it comes to catching. He’s also world class when it comes to hitting. So I’m just happy he’s my teammate for sure. Yeah, I’ve seen it too much on the other side where it’s like, ‘Gosh dang.’ But yeah, he’s the real deal.”

Brice Matthews almost made a sensational leaping catch in front of the bullpen, but the ball popped out of his glove after he hit the fence. Ward stopped between first and second base. Rutschman did the same. Meanwhile, the relievers were jumping up and down and making the bird hand gesture.

They knew.

“That was an unbelievable effort by him,” Albernaz said. “”Everything he did was like perfect, and when he hit the wall, the ball came right out. It was a great effort by him. I thought he had it.”

So did Rutschman.

“One hundred percent,” he said. “I thought I was getting a run in on a sac fly, if not. So just trying to have a positive outlook, but worked out good.”

The bullpen’s reaction didn’t tip him off.

“Well, I couldn’t tell if they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, he caught it, what a great catch,’ or he didn’t,” Rutschman said. “There was two ways it could have gone.”

Bassitt responded with a shutdown inning in the sixth, striking out two batters and stranding Paredes after a two-out single. His pitch count stood at 83. He had more in the tank but couldn’t finish the seventh.

Matthews reached on an infield hit with two outs after Bassitt failed to make the barehand pick-up along the third base line. Dustin Harris and Christian Vázquez singled to reduce the lead to 5-1, and Bassitt left to a standing ovation.

“Obviously with a doubleheader, you know you need the bullpen today,” Bassitt said. “So yeah, going deep was definitely the intention, for sure.”

“It was a huge outing for us,” Albernaz said. “Bass stepped up for us, stepped up for the boys. Like we talked about pregame, he was efficient with his pitches, he was unpredictable, he did a great job of landing all his pitches in the strike zone and also inducing chase with it, as well. Especially with the curveball. He did a great job of protecting the heater and kind of surprising guys there with two strikes.”

Trevor Rogers went on the injured list yesterday with the flu. Dean Kremer is recovering from a quadriceps strain. Zach Eflin won’t pitch again this season after undergoing ligament-reconstructive surgery in his right elbow. Bassitt acted like he was in come-to-the-rescue mode.

“I’m not going to give you our secrets, but I think all of our starters have been pretty poor throughout the year and I thought we kind of had a come-to-Jesus before Shane (Baz’s) start and just had some talks, hard talks about kind of how we were pitching, our mindset of pitching. And then Shane went out there and did his thing,” Bassitt said.

“I thought he was on the attack, and it was just, that’s how we want to be we. I think overall we’ve been too cute throughout the year and we didn’t do well. So it’s just, we have guys bullpen-wise, and obviously starters, that are way too good to be being cute out there. So yeah, honestly, between Frenchy (Drew French) and what he’s been doing behind the scenes, and obviously Shane, it was just kind of passing the baton, so to speak.”

“I think our whole pitching staff has been just trending upward, just continuing to learn, improve, and just doing a great job,” Rutschman said. “A lot of guys have been trending upward and doing a really good job, and Bass is definitely a leader when it comes to the pitching staff and this team, so his voice means a lot. Guys really take what he says and run with it.”

*Anthony Nunez allowed two unearned runs in the eighth. Mayo had an error, and an Alexander error was changed to a hit.

*Second baseman Jackson Holliday expects to begin his latest injury rehab assignment next week.

Holliday played twice at High-A Frederick and had one at-bat at Triple-A Norfolk on April 21 before exiting with discomfort in his right hand. He appeared in 11 games with the Tides on his first assignment and was shut down.

An MRI, CT scan and X-rays came back clean.

*The Yankees are starting right-hander Will Warren, left-handers Ryan Weathers and Max Fried, and right-hander Cam Schlittler in the four-game series in the Bronx. The Orioles haven’t listed their starters because of Rogers’ absence.

*Orioles Game 2 lineup:

Gunnar Henderson SS
Taylor Ward DH
Dylan Beavers LF
Pete Alonso 1B
Samuel Basallo C
Tyler O’Neill RF
Leody Taveras CF
Weston Wilson 3B
Jeremiah Jackson 2B

Brandon Young RHP