If Brayan Bello had the freedom to do it, he probably would have tapped out of tonight’s start after 13 pitches.

Forget about tapping his head for a challenge.

Bello, the Red Sox’s starter for the series opener at Camden Yards, surrendered home runs to Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Dylan Beavers in the first inning. Samuel Basallo doubled on the 15th pitch.

The smoke never cleared for Bello and the dust never settled. He allowed a career-high five home runs in 3 1/3 torturous innings. The Orioles pounded him for eight runs and 13 hits.

The homestand began with the Orioles belting six homers and thumping the Red Sox 10-3 before an announced 26,776 and returning to .500 at 13-13. They finished with a season-high 20 hits. Rutschman homered twice and tied his career high with six RBIs, Taylor Ward singled four times and walked, and Basallo also had four hits and came within a triple of the cycle.

Basallo didn’t have more than two hits in any major league game until tonight.

“All these guys have that capability in them,” said manager Craig Albernaz. “It was good to see kind of everything come together for tonight’s game.”

Here are some highlights and observations:

Power to the first-inning people.

Henderson launched a cutter 410 feet to right field at 109.1 mph for his 13th career leadoff homer and first since 2024. He batted first only 13 times last season.

Jackson Holliday accounted for the Orioles’ last leadoff homer on Sept. 2 in San Diego.

Henderson leads the team with eight homers. That part of his game remains strong. He was hitting .189/.269/.443.

The big swing from Henderson and a single in the next inning made him 7-for-21 with three doubles and two homers against Bello. He singled again in the seventh because, well, why not?

Ward singled in the first and Rutschman hit his second home run, sending a sinker 395 feet. Pete Alonso flied out and Beavers belted his second homer, sending a four-seam fastball 411 feet for a 4-0 lead.

Pitching coach Andrew Bailey went to the mound after Basallo’s double. They should have walked back together.

Henderson’s single in the second inning was clocked at 111.2 mph. Ward singled again and Henderson scored on a force play to give Rutschman his third RBI.

Rutschman’s last three-RBI game was May 21, 2025.

What about his last five-RBI game?

Rutschman followed Ward’s third single with another two-run shot in the fourth inning for his fourth career multi-homer game. The Orioles strung together three two-out singles in the seventh, the last from Rutschman to tie his career high of six RBIs on June 9, 2024 in St. Petersburg.

He’s got eight in two games since his reinstatement from the injured list.

Bello had surrendered one home run in 38 2/3 career innings against the Orioles. Basallo hammered the fourth tonight with a line drive to right-center field in the third inning at 111 mph, and Rutschman burned him again.

“The second home run was really impressive, the way he kid of rode out the off-speed pitch, stayed in his legs and be able to keep that fair,” Albernaz said. “And also his last at-bat, too, just taking his hit the other way for the RBI single with Gunnar running. Yeah, to me that’s vintage Adley.

“I wasn’t around Adley in years past. I think the Adley we’re seeing now is the one I know. Like I said, he had a great offseason, great spring training, and he’s been doing his work both in the cage, defensively, but more importantly in the weight room to kind of keep himself where he needs to be. And so, like I said, he kind of makes us go on both sides of the ball just because he’s a catcher and he’s in every decision of the game.”

Rutschman credits being in a pretty simple spot swinging-wise.

“Simple thoughts, simple moves at the plate,” he said, “so I feel like I’m making good moves and just trying to barrel up as many balls as I can.”

The Orioles hit 2,004 feet worth of homers against Bello.

They scored five runs in the first inning in the first 25 games but tallied four in the opening frame tonight.

“Everyone in our clubhouse kind of knows we’re trying to put the gas on as early as possible and just put together good ABs and try to string some runs across early,” Rutschman said. “To be able to do that today was great.

“I think it was great to just see everyone banging the ball around, getting off their good swings. This is a very talented group, and it was great to get a good win like this tonight, but like Alby always preaches, it’s kind of a Day 1 mentality, so tomorrow we’ve got to go do it again. I don’t think anyone is going to be satisfied with just, ‘Oh, we did a great job today, we can go coast tomorrow.’ Tomorrow is a new day and I think this team acts accordingly.”

“That’s what you want to do coming out of the gate,” Ward said, “and I just think hopefully it brings a change around here with that and we can keep it rolling.”

“Hitting’s hard, especially at this level, and starting pitchers get paid a ton of money for a reason,” Albernaz said. “So you’re facing the best of the best in the world and sometimes it’s tough to get it going because the pitcher on the mound’s really good. And today we were just able to capitalize on some hittable pitches and mistakes. To me that’s the biggest thing, where guys had a great plan going into the game against them and they got their swings off and they did damage and didn’t miss it.”

“We have the team to do that,” Henderson said, “and I felt like it was a matter of time. We just put a lot of good at-bats together, and you can see what our offense can do.”

Ward isn’t just a doubles machine.

He leads the majors with 13, but don’t typecast him. He singled four times, the last setting up Rutschman’s RBI single in the seventh.

Ward never had four hits in 704 games with the Angels, but he’s done it three times since the Orioles acquired him in November for starter Grayson Rodriguez. He sort of got lost in the hoopla of the Pete Alonso signing, but he’s off to a tremendous start.

The 30-homer guy has one longball so far, but he’s batting .311/.419/.466. No complaints from the Orioles.

“I take a lot of pride in it,” Ward said of getting on base. “I mean, I just think that swinging at good pitches, working on the stuff in the cage, takes care of itself. It’s good to see everything I’m doing paying off.”

Brandon Young didn’t let Boston back in the game.

Young allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings, with one walk and five strikeouts, after the Orioles recalled him to make Dean Kremer’s start. Kremer went on the 15-day injured list with a right quadriceps strain.

Young threw 92 pitches before Yennier Cano’s latest one-batter appearance. Fans gave Young a standing ovation after Marcelo Mayer’s RBI double with two outs in the sixth.

“We did a heck of a job tonight,” Young said. “Rutsch called a great game. That first inning, yeah, it makes the job a lot easier.

“He’s awesome. I mean, he’s world class. I mean, he’s one of the best for a reason.”
Wilyer Abreu homered with one out in the second on a 95 mph fastball. Two singles and a fielder’s choice in the fifth reduced the lead to 8-2, but Coby Mayo led off the bottom half of the inning with his third homer in three games.

Jovani Morán picked up where Bello left off.

Tyler O’Neill was the last Oriole to homer in three straight games, with his streak covering four in a row from July 25-29, 2025.

Andrew Kittredge finally made his 2026 debut.

The right shoulder inflammation is gone and Kittredge is back.

Kittredge retired the side in order in the seventh in his first appearance with the Orioles after they reacquired him from the Cubs on Nov. 4 for cash considerations. He was reinstated from the injured list this afternoon.

Kittredge threw 16 pitches, 12 for strikes. The results were much better in Baltimore after he posted a 15.19 ERA in six appearances with Triple-A Norfolk on his rehab assignment.

“It was great to see him back out there,” Albernaz said. “The velo was there with the fastball, great life, sinker had great bite to it. The slider was sharp and firm, and he was throwing strikes. I’ve been around Kittredge a little bit, so it’s good to see him fully healthy and back out there.”

Cameron Foster bent but didn’t break.

Foster put a runner on base in the eighth and got a double play. He loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth and Rico Garcia was forced to warm in the bullpen. Not ideal.

A fly ball to Beavers produced the first out, the throw came home and Rutschman fired to second base, where new shortstop Blaze Alexander tagged Mayer. Jarren Duran flied out.

Foster’s spot on the roster is tenuous with Keegan Akin nearing a return. Dietrich Enns also is getting closer.

Henderson with the hustle.

Henderson raced into foul territory in the third inning and dived for Jarren Duran’s popup. He made a crash landing after extending fully for the ball.

Henderson didn’t make the catch, but he got up immediately.

Maybe the injury luck is starting to change.

Extras, extras

The six home runs and 39 total bases are single-game highs in the majors. The six homers are the most by the Orioles at Camden Yards since June 19, 2021 against Toronto. The six homers through five innings are the most since June 16, 2015 versus the Phillies. The Orioles hadn’t scored four runs in the first inning since March 31, 2025 against the Red Sox.