'Vintage Adley' leads O's to 6-HR, 20-hit outburst in big win over Sox

BALTIMORE -- A message on the Camden Yards videoboard after the fifth inning on Friday night read: “No more home run pyro. Due to too many Orioles home runs, we have unfortunately run out of fireworks for the night.”

It wasn’t a joke, either. The ballpark is equipped with enough pyro to celebrate six O’s homers per game, and the club had already reached that threshold by the fifth.

That should tell you what type of night it was in Baltimore -- a fun one, and also one that reaffirmed president of baseball operations Mike Elias’ comments from earlier in the day that the 2026 Orioles are more than capable of preventing a sluggish up-and-down start from turning into a repeat of ‘25.

Adley Rutschman hit a pair of homers, while Gunnar Henderson, Dylan Beavers, Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo also went deep in the O’s series-opening 10-3 win over the Red Sox. Baltimore improved to 13-13 with a victory in its first American League East game of the year.

The Orioles set new season highs for runs and home runs, while their 20 hits were the most recorded by an MLB team so far this year. Taylor Ward and Basallo contributed four knocks apiece, Henderson’s homer marked his team-high eighth and Mayo went deep for the third straight game, his first three homers of the season.

“It’s the best. Guys are just cheering in the dugout, getting excited for each other,” Rutschman said. “To be able to have a game like this where guys are barreling balls, just cheering for each other, I think, is pretty cool for everyone to experience and just get excited for."

The six homers were two shy of the O’s franchise record (eight, on June 16, 2015, vs. the Phillies) and four from the AL/NL record (10, set by the Blue Jays on Sept. 14, 1987, against the Orioles). Friday was the first time the O’s hit six in a game since a 12-2 win at Toronto on March 27, 2025 (Opening Day last season), which had also been Rutschman’s most recent multihomer game (also a two-homer performance).

Rutschman has been hot since coming off the 10-day injured list (left ankle inflammation) on Tuesday, going 5-for-9 with three homers and eight RBIs over his first two games back. The 28-year-old catcher is hitting .349 with a 1.115 OPS in 12 games.

“To me, that’s vintage Adley,” manager Craig Albernaz said.

“Couldn’t be happier for him,” Henderson said of Rutschman. “He’s fully deserving, and he’s been working his tail off.”

Baltimore hadn’t hit six home runs at home -- meaning emptying the celebratory pyro supply -- since June 19, 2021, when Ryan Mountcastle (three), Cedric Mullins (two) and DJ Stewart went deep during a 10-7 loss to the Blue Jays.

Slow starts have been an issue for the Orioles, who scored only three first-inning runs over their first 24 games. However, they plated a pair on Wednesday on Pete Alonso’s two-run homer in Kansas City, then four more on Friday via a leadoff home run from Henderson, a two-run blast by Rutschman and a solo shot from Beavers.

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

“That’s what you want to do coming out of the gate,” added Ward, who reached base five times while hitting second in the lineup between Henderson and Rutschman. “I just think, hopefully, things are changing around here with that and we can keep it rolling.”

It was Baltimore’s first time scoring four in the first inning since March 31, 2025, its home opener last season, also against Boston.

With the six-homer Opening Day performance and the fast start in that home-opener win, the Orioles’ 2025 campaign showed early promise following consecutive postseason appearances in ‘23 and ‘24. But the season quickly took a turn for the worse due to injuries and underperformance, resulting in a 75-87 record and a last-place finish in the AL East.

What makes Elias confident that the 2026 O’s -- facing early injury woes and adversity of their own -- will have an upward trajectory from here?

“This team, having a lot of these guys, our young guys, having gone through that experience last year, I think they’re much more steeled against it. And [I'm] very, very hopeful that they’re not going to allow something like that to happen,” Elias said. “I’m bullish about the team. I think that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Consider Friday night a significant step forward and perhaps even a strong sign that the 2026 O’s are a team on the rise.