DENVER -- “There was some celebration going on after the game, there’s no doubt about it. I want these guys to enjoy every win.”

Those were words Orioles manager Brandon Hyde had been waiting to speak for eight days.

Baltimore entered play Saturday night against the Rockies at Coors Field with the worst record in baseball, at 15-36. The club had lost seven in a row and 12 of 14, with many of the defeats coming in heartbreaking fashion under the weight of an ongoing home run barrage against its beleaguered pitching staff.

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So when his players grinded out a 9-6 victory over Colorado, a victory “earned” in the strictest sense of the word, Hyde wanted that winning feeling to last as long as possible before transitioning into the competitive mindset for Sunday’s series finale.

“It’s not easy to win in the big leagues, period,” he said.

Saturday’s effort featured contributions up and down the lineup, with Baltimore putting a season-high 17 hits on the board. The bulk of the damage came from the bats of Jonathan Villar and Renato Núñez, who combined to drive in five runs. Villar finished a triple shy of the cycle, and a suddenly red-hot Nunez launched his fourth homer in four games.

But on this night, it was reliever Josh Lucas who ensured the Orioles finished the job, unlike so many recent contests in which they led or were within striking distance, only to be left watching their opposition shake hands in the middle of the infield following the last out.

Lucas, one of two Baltimore relievers who hadn’t been heavily used over the past week, along with Miguel Castro, entered the game in the seventh inning and proceeded to shut down Colorado’s lineup for the final three frames to seal Baltimore’s first win since May 17. It was the first save of the 28-year-old’s Major League career.

“It’s hard to win in the big leagues,” Lucas said, echoing his manager’s mantra. “Everyone’s here for a reason and everyone’s good. I don’t put too much into what I did. These guys have been here a lot more than I have. I’m just trying to go out there and set my footprint in this game.”

His footprint was the most conspicuous of many Saturday night, and an admittedly tired Andrew Cashner had a particular appreciation for the efforts of Lucas and, for an inning before him, Castro.

As Cashner, Saturday’s Orioles starter, sat in the clubhouse watching the Rangers-Angels game in its final innings, Dan Straily walked over and joked that Cashner had put in a good effort in running out a 5-3 groundout in the second, and a fielder’s choice on a sacrifice bunt attempt in the fourth. But on a 6-3 groundout in his final plate appearance in the sixth, Cashner wasn’t exactly at his best getting down the line.

“I was gassed, man,” Cashner told Straily shortly after saying the same thing to reporters.

Cashner went five innings and kept the Orioles in the game despite surrendering five runs and having fatigue set in due to the altitude. But Hyde was hoping for more length, and was left with two bullpen options to get through four innings while clinging to a two-run lead at Coors Field.

“I wanted him to go back out for the sixth, just knowing our bullpen situation” Hyde said. “ … We had some emergency guys in case we got into extra innings or something of that sort, but we needed Castro and Lucas to give us innings.”

The Orioles, a team at the nadir of a rebuilding process, have run the gauntlet between wins -- facing the Indians in Cleveland before returning home for a series with the first-place Yankees and a lineup that appeared constructed to crush Baltimore pitching, followed by their current three-game set at the most hitter-friendly park in the Majors.

Despite the losses, they’ve kept playing to win.

“We’ve been grinding,” Nunez said. “We played hard again today, and we got the W.”