When Gunnar Henderson lofted the seventh pitch of Thursday night’ s game at Yankee Stadium into the left field stands, it provided a bit of early offense the Orioles had lacked of late. Paced by three more hits and another home run by Henderson, the Orioles beat the New York Yankees, 14-1, with all but one of Baltimore’ s season-high in runs coming in the first four.
When Gunnar Henderson lofted the seventh pitch of Thursday night’s game at Yankee Stadium into the left field stands, it provided a bit of early offense the Orioles had lacked of late. But there was much, much more to come.
Paced by three more hits and another home run by Henderson, the Orioles beat the New York Yankees, 14-1, with all but one of Baltimore’s season-high in runs coming in the first four innings. Henderson recorded a hit in each of those frames, becoming only the second major leaguer since 1984 with four hits and two home runs through four innings. Doing so in 2021, Cedric Mullins is the only other player in franchise history with four hits of any kind before the fifth inning.
“Gunnar set the tone tonight,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “That was amazing. He’s got so much power, and to be able to go opposite field the way he did there in the top of the first and just spraying the ball around hard, he’s a really exciting young player with a ton of tools.”
A week past his 22nd birthday, Henderson became the second youngest Oriole to finish with two home runs among four hits in a whole game, only nine days older than Curt Blefary was in 1965. Since, only eight major leaguers younger than Henderson have posted such a stat line: Joe Morgan, Rubén Sierra, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, Carlos Correa, Juan Soto and Rafael Devers.
Entering the season as baseball’s top prospect and a favorite to be the American League Rookie of the Year, Henderson got off to a slow start to 2023 after playing well in an end-of-year cameo In his first 30 games this season, the infielder hit .174 with a .643 OPS. His performance Thursday lifted those marks to .246 and .804.
“Even though the numbers didn’t show it, there was signs that good things are going to happen,” Hyde said.
