WASHINGTON – The Nationals sprung an opener on the Orioles today, sending left-hander Richard Lovelady to the mound first after listing right-hander Miles Mikolas as the starter.

The Orioles were broke and the Nats fixed them.

Gunnar Henderson hit a monstrous homer off Lovelady in the first inning, Coby Mayo delivered a long two-run shot against Mikolas in the second, Colton Cowser joined the power trio in the fourth, and the Orioles averted the sweep with a 7-3 victory before an announced crowd of 26,715.

Players boarded a bus for the airport and their flight to Tampa, where the first-place Rays will host them. They improved to 21-26, avoiding a tumble to a season-worst seven games below .500.

“I feel like we’ve had a lot of quality at-bats these past couple days and it was just a matter of just starting to string them together,” Cowser said. “Balls started to fall today, and honestly, it was just one of our more complete wins this year it feels like. A really good showing.”

“I think you’ve just got to go into every day and treat it like a new game,” Mayo said. “I think that the goal is always to take good at-bats, hit the ball hard, and when they don’t drop, it is what it is. Like it’s frustrating, but you know you did your job, you hit it hard, and I think you need to have that mentality every day.”

Taylor Ward hit leadoff and lined to center field at 105.3 mph, with Jacob Young racing in to make a sliding catch. Henderson followed with his homer into the third deck in right field, the red seat district, at 397 feet and 106.7 mph.

Everything else fell into place offensively with one swing from Henderson.

“Absolutely,” Mayo said. “I mean, I don’t think anyone’s too worried about it right now. Everyone knows the player he is, and I know he’s hard on himself because he knows he’s one of the best in the game. That’s why there’s a whole season to let stuff play out. At the end of 162, you can go back and look at the numbers. People have good months, bad months, but 162 is a long season, so you’ve just got to kind of let some stuff play out.”

“How Gunnar goes and how he’s doing is usually how we go, too,” said manager Craig Albernaz. “Not to take credit away from a lot of great hitters in our lineup, but with Gunnar doing what he did right there, he set the tone. That was a pretty majestic home run to start the game, especially left-on-left, too, so it was really impressive.”

Henderson’s last homer was on April 26. He’s the first Oriole to reach double figures. He also got within a triple of the cycle today and had a season-high four hits, including an RBI single in the ninth after Jeremiah Jackson’s leadoff double.

“You can take a deep breath, and I guess getting one in the first definitely eases off for the next couple of minutes,” Henderson said. “But yeah, I feel like at that point, for me, still stay on it because you’ve got to get as many as you can.”

Henderson’s average was down to .199 again today, with a .256 on-base percentage and .393 slugging. He stays at the leadoff spot or No. 2, depending on the opposing starter. The Orioles keep waiting for him to break out.

Meanwhile, Henderson falls back on his horrible slump at the High-A level to guide him through difficult stretches.

“I think it was 0-for-31 or something like that,” he said. “Thing I learned probably the most from that was just sticking to what got you to where you are, and it’s so hard to do that when you’re in the moment because you’re obviously wanting to find something that’s going to bring you success now. You’ve just got to stick with it. It’s easier said than done. But you’ve just got to build on each day, and I’ve felt like I’ve had good at-bats the past about five days.

“It was starting to get frustrating, I’m not going to lie, because you feel good and then it’s like, ‘All right, well the hits are supposed to come.’ But baseball’s just a funny game. You’ve just got to stick with it.”

Lovelady earned the save Friday night after entering with two outs in the ninth and surrendering an RBI single to Henderson. He walked Ward and struck out Adley Rutschman.

Mikolas replaced Lovelady today with one out in the second and Samuel Basallo on first base after a leadoff single. Mayo completed a nine-pitch at-bat, fouling off five, with a 407-foot shot to left field at 112.7 mph.

This one makes up for yesterday’s foul ball, when Mayo thought he hit a game-tying homer and chucked his bat to the dugout. The distance might have set a record. The team also assumed that Mayo homered, but the call stood.

Today’s ball landed halfway up the seats and nowhere near the pole. Mayo dropped the bat and began to jog toward first base.

“Liked the at-bat the whole time,” he said. “Did a good job with the at-bat and hit some hard balls foul and was able to hit that last one fair.

“I know I didn’t play my best baseball early this season. At times, I showed little flashes of it. Feel good right now, which is nice.”

“Like anything for a young player, there’s ebbs and flows to the season, but with Mayo right now, he’s being very diligent with his plan and his approach,” Albernaz said. “That’s something where he kind of, when he strays away from it, is when we kind of see the lackluster results. But as of late, sticking with his plan, and he has juice, everyone can see it, the bat speed. So it was great to see him just stick with his plan pretty much the whole series.”

Taylor Ward drew his 44th walk today to lead the majors, and Henderson singled to put runners on the corners with no outs in the third. Pete Alonso’s fly ball gave the Orioles a 4-1 lead.

Leody Taveras had a leadoff double in the fourth at 110 mph and Cowser’s first homer of the season, a slider into the right field bullpen, was clocked at 113.3 mph.

“Been working really hard, and for it to be able to show up today and have some good at-bats is all I can ask for,” said Cowser, who began the day batting .169 with a .464 OPS.

“I’ve been feeling great. I feel like it’s, like I said, just been working really hard in the cage. Just really trying to instill some confidence that hasn’t been showing up from the results and just trusting the process. Yeah, I’ve been feeling really comfortable and just trying to stack quality at-bats.”

“The home run was vintage Cowser,” Albernaz said. “Getting ready early, got a pitch to hit and put a good pass on it. He has that juice in him.”

The dugout gave Cowser the silent treatment.

Yeah, just being his first one and it’s been a while,” Henderson said, “so yeah, just giving him a hard time a little bit.”

“He’s had good at-bats,” Henderson added. “I know he’s been working his butt off. Obviously, hasn’t had the start to the year he wants, but I know him and his work ethic, and yeah, he’s been working his butt off and I’m very happy to see him get one.”

The Orioles scorched the ball in the series, though it didn’t lead to much scoring or any wins before today. Henderson’s single was 100.3 mph. Mayo lined out to third at 100.8 mph before Cowser’s homer – his first hit against a breaking ball after going 0-for-24 with 14 strikeouts.

Brandon Young couldn’t provide much length. He lasted 3 2/3 innings and left a bases-loaded mess for Anthony Nunez, who struck out Luis García Jr.

Jacob Young hit a solo homer in the second, and Keibert Ruiz had a sacrifice fly in the fourth after Washington loaded the bases with no outs. James Wood reached on an infield single with two outs to bring in Nunez, who escaped the jam with a nasty changeup.

Nunez hadn’t entered a game before the sixth inning until today. He retired all four batters faced and struck out three.

Young allowed two runs and five hits with three walks, three strikeouts and a wild pitch. He was done after 70 pitches.

“Every time I step on the mound, the goal is to help the team get a chance to win,” Young said. “I’m a little frustrated today with how good I felt and couldn’t get deep enough into the game. Too many pitches the last inning. I kind of lost it there.”

Proud moments for ‘pen

A bullpen that surrendered nine runs yesterday in the last two innings was much better today.

Tyler Wells followed Nunez and retired the side in order in the sixth before the Nationals turned three singles into a run in the seventh, the last a ground ball from CJ Abrams that deflected off Alonso’s mitt and rolled across the infield. Wells struck out Daylen Lile to strand two.

Yennier Cano worked around a two-out walk in the eighth and lowered his ERA to 1.06. Seventeen of his last 18 appearances are scoreless.

Henderson’s late RBI took away a save opportunity for Rico Garcia, but the right-hander struck out two in a scoreless inning. Luis García Jr. doubled with one out for only the second hit allowed by Garcia in 66 batters.

Asked about using Nunez so early, Albernaz said, “We had Nunez up and ready, and to me that was a pivotal point in the game. Like we always talk about, I value that reliever that comes in and can clean up that mess with the traffic on base from the starter, to kind of start clean and shut down the inning. Nunez was our guy today, and he was outstanding.

“All of our relievers were awesome. They answered the bell for us – Nunez to Wells, Cano was nasty, Wells did a great job of eating up two innings, and Rico just being Rico.”

Down on the farm

Jackson Holliday homered last night for Triple-A Norfolk and he tripled today off the center field wall in the third inning, a 400-footer at 104.6 mph, and scored on Heston Kjerstad’s single. Holliday was removed in the fifth inning as part of his return to play progression.

Kjerstad also singled in the sixth.

Ryan Noda made his 15th minor league start in center field, got one at-bat and came out of the game with a bruised left knee after colliding with the wall.

Willy Vasquez tripled but also had to pitch two innings in a 15-3 loss in Charlotte. He allowed five runs, including three homers.

Ike Irish, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the organization’s No. 2 prospect, came out of High-A Frederick’s game after being hit by a pitch on the right wrist.

Catcher Colin Tuft hit two homers by the third inning. Wehiwa Aloy was 3-for-3 with two RBIs by the third.

Kiefer Lord struck out nine in 4 1/3 innings. He allowed two runs and three hits.

Keys left-hander Joseph Dzierwa, the No. 12 prospect in the system per MLB Pipeline, is moving up to Double-A Chesapeake.

Dzierwa was a second-round pick in 2025, the highest pitcher selected since Mike Elias joined the front office. He posted a 2.21 ERA in eight starts.