Ramón Laureano, Gunnar Henderson, and Colton Cowser all had big nights at the plate while the bullpen picked up the slack for Charlie Morton’s poor start.

An outstanding performance from the Orioles bullpen and a nice showing from the entire lineup got the Birds back into the win column on Saturday night in Sacramento.

If you watched the first inning of this game and then went to bed, you are likely shocked by the result. That first frame had disaster written all over it, and yet the Orioles pulled it off.

Charlie Morton reverted back to his early-season form in this game, although he did avoid the complete implosion that tended to soil his starts back in April. Over 2.1 innings the veteran righty allowed four runs on six hits, four walks, and five strikeouts. It is a miracle that Morton’s final line did not end up far worse than that.

The 41-year-old was brutal to begin the game. Before he even recorded an out, he allowed a run on three hits and a walk. Lawrence Butler led off with a double, and then scored on a Jacob Wilson single. A Brent Rooker single followed by a Tyler Soderstrom walk had the bags chock full of A’s.

All three of those base runners would come on home at some point in the inning. Wilson scored on a Willie MacIver single. Rooker crossed the plate on a JJ Bleday single. And then Soderstrom scored the fourth run of the day on a squibber up the first base line that Morton fielded but failed to tag out the runner. Originally it was ruled the final out of the inning before a review overturned it.

Morton ultimately “survived” the inning by striking out the side amidst the madness. He returned for the second, kept it scoreless despite traffic on the bases, and then recorded one more out in the third inning to wrap up his day.

Morton’s issues seemed to center around control. He was missing spots by multiple feet. He made so many uncompetitive pitches and got himself into trouble with the walks. But it is commendable to see him keep it together well enough to give the Orioles a chance to win. Given the ultimate outcome of the game, we’ll take it.

Meanwhile, the Orioles offense came out of the gate with a similar fervor. They had loaded the bases in the top of the first inning as well. Jackson Holliday and Adley Rutschman walked ahead of a Gunnar Henderson single. But all they got out of it was one run, which came in to score on a Ryan O’Hearn sac fly. Very quickly this felt like a game in which the Orioles would once again waste base runners. But in the middle innings the O’s got to A’s starter Luis Severino with regularity.

Ramón Laureano smacked his seventh home run of the season in the fourth inning. The two-run shot also scored O’Hearn, who had led off with a single.

In the fifth inning, the Orioles tied the score at 4-4 thanks to a Henderson single through the left side of the infield. Rutschman had doubled with two outs ahead of him, and then came on in to score.

Colton Cowser walloped a mammoth home run in the sixth inning. It was only a solo shot, but it felt like massive momentum shifter. According to Statcast, the home run travel 455 feet, the longest home run ever allowed by Severino.

The Oriole scored once more in the sixth. With Ramón Urías on third and Dylan Carlson on second, Holliday hit a slow ground ball to third baseman Logan Davidson. Holliday’s speed put pressure on Davidson, who then spiked the throw, which pulled the first baseman off the bag and allowed the run to mosey on home.

Baltimore’s seventh and final run came in the seventh inning. Gunnar Henderson was hit by a pitch and then stole second base. That brought up Laureano, who looks like the IL stint did nothing to slow him down. He singled to drive in Henderson and make it 7-4.

Where the Athletics pitchers struggled, the Orioles thrived. No runs were scored by the home team in the final eight innings of this game.

The closest they got to scoring was in the fifth inning. Keegan Akin had come on to pitch. His first offering to Butler was laced to left field. Carlson took a poor route to collect the hit, and instead the ball scooted past him to the wall. Meanwhile Bleday was sprinting around the bases. As Carlson corraled the ball in left field, Bledlay was rounding third. Carlson hit the cut off man Henderson with the throw, and he in turn fired home to the waiting Maverick Handley. The rookie catcher secured the throw and tagged out Bleday to end the inning. A coach challenge added some drama to the moment, but the verdict came back in the Orioles favor to keep the visitors ahead.

Otherwise, the bullpen was terrific for the Orioles. Tony Mansolino deployed six pitchers to get through the final 6.2 innings. Matt Bowman was the standout. He tossed 2.1 scoreless innings, walking two and striking out two. But it was good to see Seranthony Domínguez, Gregory Soto, and Andrew Kittredge work relatively smooth innings.

Félix Bautista got the save in the ninth inning, and he struck out the side in the process. It felt like a laborious frame. He threw 24 pitches and seemed to favor the fastball over the splitter due to some control concerns. But he, as the rest of the bullpen before him, got the job done.

The Orioles bounced back in a big way here. Sure, the A’s stink. But these are teams the O’s need to whoop if they are going to have any hope of re-entering the playoff picture. The bullpen needed a confidence boost like this, and the offense was due for a big night. The only concern is Morton, but that’s nothing new. Two good starts didn’t erase how terrible he was in April. We learned here that he is far from fixed.

The rubber match on Sunday will come down to Tomoyuki Sugano (5-3, 3.04 ERA) for the Orioles. The team does have an off day on Monday, but that comes after a cross-country flight. Needless to say, Mansolino will be hoping Sugano can go deep in the decisive game of the series, or that the offense can handle their business. First pitch is 4:05.