Dylan Carlson knew the drill. Slap hands with teammates, approach dugout steps and remove batting helmet, receive pirate hat, go directly to hydration station and chug. And it’s much better in a crowd.

Carlson is on an offensive tear, hitting a three-run homer today after an earlier single and stolen base. And Charlie Morton is on a mission to prove that he can still pitch at age 41.

It proved to be a nice combination, the power and perseverance.

The Orioles ran their winning streak to a season-high three games today with a 5-2 victory over the Cardinals before an announced crowd of 21,717 at Camden Yards. Their record improved to 19-34. The vibe also is changing.

It’s no coincidence that the rotation is healing some wounds. Trevor Rogers gave the Orioles 6 1/3 scoreless innings Saturday in Game 2 of a doubleheader, and Dean Kremer followed yesterday with 5 1/3. Morton carried a shutout bid into the fifth before Pedro Pagés hit a fly ball to left field that drifted into the seats for a two-run homer.

Morton won his first game with the Orioles in eight decisions by allowing two runs and four hits in a season-high six innings. He surrendered two runs in 9 1/3 over three relief appearances to earn another chance, and today’s outing featured an uptick in fastball velocity and a sharper curveball, except for the one thrown to Pagés in an 0-2 count.

Six starts for Morton resulted in a 10.22 ERA, 2.068 WHIP and .340 opponents’ average, but he offered quality today. He walked two batters, struck out five and received a nice ovation as he returned to the dugout for the last time at 86 pitches.

“I think we’ve kind of seen that out of the ‘pen the last three, four, five outings," said interim manager Tony Mansolino. "I don’t know if that looked whole lot different than it has recently. Obviously, a very different look than his previous starts. But we talked about it the other day. I think it’s OK to connect the dots between, you go to the ‘pen, you get taken out of a lot of pressure situations, you get some time to work on some things and kind of get things fixed to where they need to be, and then they come back and kind of look like their former selves. So I think that’s probably what we saw just now.

“He’s got a long track record. We were very confident. We knew that we kind of need to take our foot off the gas with him a little bit and give him a chance to kind of fix himself. A guy that’s been that successful for so long, it probably shouldn’t be that big of a surprise.”

The bullpen was nails. No one reached base against Seranthony Domínguez, Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista, who struck out two and notched his eighth save.

Morton set the tone and registered his first win since Sept. 4.

“I think it was just more trying to find the breaking ball, honestly," Morton said. "I think, especially the outing in Anaheim, I started feeling it a little bit more. Try to relax my arm a little bit and just some stuff with my lower half, and once I saw that, once I saw hitters kind of respecting the breaking ball, it then buys me time in the zone with my four-seamer. Plus, just throwing strikes with the heater. I think in-zone, my heater was playing pretty well. It has just been a grind staying in every count, right? And staying in every at-bat. So I think when the breaking ball is there, it just changes the dynamic of the at-bat.”

Morton has spent a lot of time in self-reflection, wondering if hurting the team with poor outings meant he should stop trying. Wondering why it was happening, since he didn't feel finished.

"I do feel like I established who and what I am in this game," he said. "I’m 41 years old. I can’t really expect I’m going to go out there and have the best year of my career. I don’t know if I could realistically expect for that to happen. I didn’t expect to come in and have a 10 ERA. With the stuff that was still coming out of my hand, waking up every day and thinking about how bad it was going was kind of surreal.

"It was like, if I came in and I was throwing 88 miles an hour and I was spinning the breaking ball and my two-seam wasn’t moving and my changeup wasn’t good and I was just done, physically just done, that would be an easier pill to swallow. But knowing that it was still coming out good and knowing that there was probably something going on that I just needed to fix and I couldn’t figure it out. I just slowed it down a little bit. I think trying to gather myself over the rubber a little bit, let my arm work naturally, just kind of backing off just a little bit gave me that feel a little bit again. Hopefully I’m on a better track.

"But yeah, it’s tough when you go to a new team and a new city and they don’t know you, right? The guys in the clubhouse don’t know me. They haven’t gone through any of it with me. The city hasn’t seen me do it on a stage. They haven’t seen me bounce back. People just don’t know me. And, too, I’m at the end of my career. I didn’t want to go out that way. So, yeah, I made the decision to come back and play because I felt like I could do it and contribute to a team. So to have the performances that I had and to feel the way I felt - after going through an offseason where I put in the work, going through spring training where I did the same, I prepared just like I always do - and to have the game just kind of slap you in the face, gut-punch every single time, it’s tough."

Jackson Holliday singled twice in three innings atop the order and drove in Carlson in the third. Carlson led off the inning with a single, swiped second base and advanced on Maverick Handley’s sacrifice bunt.

Carlson began his Orioles career 1-for-22 but was 3-for-8 with a double and home run in the last two games in Boston. His former team got in his way this afternoon.

More regular at-bats and innings seem to be fueling Carlson, a third-place finisher in Rookie of the Year voting in the National League in 2021.

"I think, ultimately, when you’re in this situation, you just try to find ways to impact the game, help the team win," he said. "Coming up in big situations and the guys in front of me keep doing their job, getting on base, and the team’s playing good ball right now.

"It’s been different, the role, just what you’ve got to be ready for. But that’s the way the game goes. You’ve just got to be ready for opportunities, be ready for moments, and do the best you can in those situations."

"I’m really happy for him," Mansolino said. "He’s looked good. We’ve talked about it a lot. He came out of spring training. He looked good. You guys all saw it. He had a great camp. He goes to Norfolk. That’s tough. When you go to the big leagues for five, six years and go back to Triple-A, there’s some soul searching that happens right there, and then you get back to the big leagues, and you sit for four days and then you might get a pinch-hit against a late-inning reliever, and then we make assumptions that he can’t do it. The reality is he probably just needed an opportunity. Just because of where we are with the roster and the health, he’s gotten a bit of a run here, and he’s definitely taken advantage of it.”

Doing it against the Cardinals, his original organization, had to heighten the thrill.

"I mean, I’d be lying if I said 'no,'" he said with a grin. "I mean, yeah, it feels good. I think ultimately stacking some wins together for us here is nice and feels really good."

Carlson was in center field with Cedric Mullins on the bench again for the second time in three games.

“Just trying to keep the guy fresh," Mansolino said. "The doubleheaders, the day games, kind of everything going into that. Just trying to make sure that Ced is in a place to help carry us going forward.”

Ryan O’Hearn collected his second of three opposite-field singles leading off the fourth, Heston Kjerstad reached on second baseman Brendan Donovan’s throwing error on an attempted force, and Carlson launched a sinker to center field at 107.6 mph to give the Orioles a 5-0 lead.

Holliday led off the first inning with a single, Cardinals third baseman Nolan Gorman committed a throwing error on a potential double play ball, and the Orioles went ahead 1-0 after Gunnar Henderson’s fielder’s choice grounder.

Cardinals starter Erick Fedde allowed one run against the Orioles in 23 2/3 innings before today, and his 0.38 ERA was fourth-lowest against them in a minimum 20 innings behind Steve Olin (0.00), Harry Dorish (0.32) and Rich Garces (0.32), according to STATS. His defense let him down and he complicated matters.

Fedde allowed three earned runs and five total with seven hits in five innings.

O’Hearn raised his average to .340 with a .968 OPS, and the Orioles won consecutive Memorial Day games for the first time since 2013-15. Their home losing streak ended at eight. They've strung together three consecutive victories for the first time since the conclusion of the 2024 regular season.

Music blared in the clubhouse again. Strobe lights blinded anyone who got near them.

"People in a Major League Baseball clubhouse will tell you momentum is real," Mansolino said, "and I would be in agreement.”

* The Orioles selected catcher Chadwick Tromp's contract earlier today but kept Adley Rutschman on the active roster.

“Adley was unavailable today," Mansolino said. "He was going through the process, still, and we just wanted to make sure we had a guy who’s caught in the major leagues recently available.”