Kyle Bradish was the first Oriole to emerge from the dugout this afternoon, jogging to the first base line and jumping over it as he turned at the waist.

It sure looked like a real game.

Bradish makes his next start Saturday against the Twins at Camden Yards, when the results actually matter. He’s No. 2 in the rotation behind Trevor Rogers. Today, he was the first to pitch in the home ballpark.

Manager Craig Albernaz treated it like an exhibition, removing Bradish after a sixth “up” and with the right-hander’s pitch count at 74. Bradish tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings with four hits, three walks and three strikeouts in the Orioles’ 8-1 win over the Nationals.

The crowd stood and cheered Bradish as he walked to the dugout after retiring Brady House on a ground ball. He tossed his gum into the grass before reaching the dirt track and accepted high fives from teammates.

“It’s definitely a different feel than being in Sarasota, having fans in the crowd, big stadium, with probably what their A lineup looks to be,” Bradish said. “I think it was good practice heading into this weekend.”

The Nationals had back-to-back singles with one out in the fourth inning on ground balls from House (104.2 mph) and CJ Abrams (107.4 mph) that shot through the infield. Jacob Young hit into a 6-4 force, barely beating the throw to first, and Gunnar Henderson snagged José Tena’s grounder up the middle and raced to the bag for the out.

A one-out single and walk created another rally in the fifth, but Luis García grounded to Pete Alonso, who flipped to Bradish covering first, and Daylen Lile flied to center.

This wasn’t Bradish at his best, with seven baserunners in 5 1/3, but good enough to keep the Nats from scoring. Good enough to win on most days.

Bradish said he had some rust with his fastball command after the gap between starts. He threw three innings on a back field and a de-load prior to facing the Nationals.

“But I think overall, shapes and everything were good, body felt good, so we’re in a good spot,” he said.

“Slider looked really good today,” Albernaz said. “Fastball command, it was there but not the way Bradish usually commands the fastball. Even though the misses weren’t big. I’m just saying that because I know how hard K.B. is on himself. But I thought he looked great out there.”

Colton Cowser homered onto Eutaw Street with two outs in the second inning for a 1-0 lead, a 419-foot shot at 109.2 mph. He went left-on-left against Mitchell Parker.

“For me, it’s just more so having a quality at-bat,” he said. “Not necessarily worried about the result. That’s kind of been the motto this spring is just more so the process, how we’re getting in certain counts. And mainly just the approach. I think it’s kind of paying dividends on what we worked on earlier in the spring, and showed up a little bit today.”

Eutaw Street homers aren’t chronicled in exhibition games, though Ken Griffey Jr. has a plaque after hitting the warehouse in the All-Star Home Run Derby.

“I’m gonna vouch for a plaque there with an asterisk,” Cowser said. “I said it right away. All my further ones to the pull side feel like they’ve been on the road. I mean, I don’t know. I might just go put my own sticker out there. I don’t know what the official ruling on that is, so if someone can find out and let me know, that’d be great.”

Today marked Cowser’s first homer this spring.

“Hey,” Henderson asked from the next locker, “what was it like to see the ball go over the fence for the first time?”
“Shut up,” Cowser replied.

Cowser is the starting center fielder, with the Orioles sticking to their offseason plan. The roster has enough flexibility that they can sit Cowser against some left-handers and go with a platoon of sorts, which president of baseball operations Mike Elias commented on yesterday in his media scrum.

“I think it’s all gonna be performance based,” Elias said. “I think we’ve got some good outfielders and some guys who showed they can play center. He’s one of them. Looked great defensively in this camp. Had his moments with the bat. It’s spring training, but we know who he is talent-wise. We know what a good outfielder he is. But ultimately, I don’t think that picture is set in stone for the whole year and we’re gonna watch our guys play”

Henderson also went left-on-left today for a home run, his ball traveling 404 feet to center field at 104.3 mph for a 2-0 lead in the third inning.

Luis Vázquez, in the battle for a utility spot, was drilled on the right hand by a 92 mph cutter in the eighth inning. He tried to stay in the game but came out for a pinch-runner.

Albernaz said Vázquez is getting stitches in his thumb and will have X-rays on Monday.

Vázquez is in the same competition with Jeremiah Jackson, Bryan Ramos, Weston Wilson and José Barrero. Jackson, batting for the only time in today’s game, hit a 402-foot, three-run homer to center field in the eighth inning at 106.6 mph.

He seems like a good bet to make the club.

“Body feels good, swing feels good,” he said. “So all in all, it feels like a pretty good spring training.”

The timing of today’s home run seemed ideal.

“Anytime you hit a homer, it’s a good thing,” he said. “Just trying to stack days, have good at-bats, perform and do my job.”

Parker struck out eight batters in four innings. His replacement, Jack Sinclair, struck out the side in the fifth.

Sandy Gaston, the Cuban pitcher signed by the Rays for $2.61 million in 2018 after the Orioles made a strong push for him, allowed a single to Bryan Ramos leading off the sixth and walked three straight batters, including Cowser to force in a run. Erik Tolman hit Blaze Alexander with two outs to bring in another run, and Henderson walked for a 5-0 lead.

Rico Garcia replaced Bradish and got a fly ball and strikeout. Garcia earned a spot in the bullpen with 5 2/3 scoreless and hitless innings, coupled with his performance last summer after rejoining the Orioles.

“Rico looked good,” Albernaz said. “It was good to see him before he left for the WBC, he looked good, he looked sharp. Didn’t really use his curveball too much in the WBC, which was interesting, but to see him come back and have these outings under his belt, yeah, he looked real good.”

Jackson Kowar, trying to secure one of the last spots, turned in a scoreless seventh after issuing a one-out walk. He struck out James Wood and picked off Nasim Nuñez.

Lile homered off Ryan Long in the eighth to break up the collective shutout bid. Ryan Helsley handled the ninth, entering to AC/DC’s “Hells Bells,” and worked around a pair of one-out walks. He struck out three.

Albernaz’s first game managing at Camden Yards was complete.

“It was awesome,” he said. “Just being in this ballpark, even though it was technically a spring training game. I love this place. The feel. The new scoreboard was awesome. To feel the crowd, beautiful day. Appreciate the fans coming out. It was awesome. It was really cool.

“Definitely wasn’t a Grapefruit League feel but also definitely wasn’t a real game feel. It was kind of like a hybrid. But I love that we get to come up here and play before we have a real game. The boys were buzzing. It was good to be back.”

The Orioles didn’t announce any roster moves before or immediately after the game. Elias wasn’t ready yesterday to share with media a list of players who made the club.

“The reality is, we’re still in spring training, we just happen to be a team that’s going north a couple days early,” he said. “So, really, until spring training is over, I don’t think it’s appropriate to totally specify the roster, so we want to take some of that time. Plus, we’ve got injuries, something else might happen, and that creates some moving parts.”

Elias talked yesterday about the possibility of going outside the organization to fill out the roster, but he also stressed how excited he is with the talent on this team.

“It was an odd spring training in the sense of, a lot of guys in the WBC, split-squad, we really only had the whole team out on the field together once or twice, and we had some health issues,” he said. “But when I saw them out on the field together a couple times, I was really impressed with the way that the team looked. So we’re very optimistic about the team.”

The ballpark capacity is 42,455 with seats removed to accommodate the renovations. Today’s game drew an announced crowd of 8,948.

Bradish headed outdoors about three hours before first pitch to examine all of the changes and soak in the atmosphere.

“It looks amazing,” he said. “Really good improvements all around. Sound system sounded great, scoreboard obviously. They did a really good job this offseason.”