Hours before Wednesday’s game, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde pondered the offensive approach his team has displayed in many games this year. The lack of walks has stood out to him — the Orioles entered with a 7.4% walk rate, which ranked 27th out of 30 teams — and the manager wanted to see an improvement in that area.

The big swing from Jackson Holliday in the second inning was great. No doubt. But the plate appearances directly preceding Holliday in that inning were the sort Hyde wanted to see more frequently. Cedric Mullins and Ramón Urías worked walks on opposite sides of Ryan Mountcastle’s single to load the bases against right-hander Gavin Williams.

And then Williams hung a slider to Holliday, and Holliday blasted it to the left-center bullpen for a grand slam.

That slam coupled with a late surge in run production to power Baltimore to a 9-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians — only the Orioles’ fourth victory this month in 12 games. But that offensive outpouring conjoined at the right time with a resurgent start from right-hander Dean Kremer and another stout bullpen effort to turn Wednesday’s game into a comfortable affair.

“It’s always fun to hit a home run and score a bunch of runs as a team,” Holliday said. “I think it was really good for us. Dean threw the ball awesome, and then we had some kind of getting out of jams a little bit, which was good. I think we played really well as a team tonight.”

The swing also placed Holliday in rare air. According to MLB.com, he became the third Orioles player to record two grand slams within his first seven career home runs, joining Brian Roberts and Fritzie Connally. It came at a great time for Holliday and his team, too.

Prior to Holliday’s grand slam, he was in an 0-for-17 slide. He was out of the lineup Tuesday against left-hander Logan Allen, but he made his presence felt immediately upon returning. And, for the Orioles, an early lead has been a key formula in their seven wins. Moreover, the Orioles are 7-2 when they score four or more runs.

They’re even better with five or more runs: 7-1. Ramón Laureano, who started in place of Tyler O’Neill because of O’Neill’s neck discomfort, throttled his first homer since joining the Orioles in the seventh. A four-run eighth, including Ryan O’Hearn’s shot to deep right and Heston Kjerstad’s two-run single, put the game away.

“I thought our approach was really good tonight,” Hyde said.

With those runs to work with, Kremer produced his best start of the season. He conceded one run — a solo homer to Gabriel Arias to begin the third — but he held the Guardians to four hits in 5 1/3 innings. Kremer could have been charged with just two hits, considering a pair of them were borderline errors from Holliday and Gunnar Henderson.

The outing reinforced much of what Kremer has felt over his previous three. He allowed five runs in two of those three outings, but he maintained that his stuff played well, even if a few missed locations cost him. The home run to Arias came on a middle-middle cutter, but beyond that Kremer located well.

He also mixed his pitches in a different way. To begin the year, Kremer relied heavily on his cutter (29.1%) while throwing his splitter 15.4% of the time.

On Wednesday, Kremer leaned on his splitter most (25%) in an otherwise even mix that included his four-seam fastball, sinker and curveball. Kremer used his cutter 18% of the time — a sharp decline from his last outing, when he threw it at a 33% rate in a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Kremer remained elusive as to why that was — “Probably not going to share my secrets with you,” he said — but the pitch mix worked.

“That’s a scrappy team that puts the ball in play, and I thought he mixed well even with some frustrating at-bats, possibly, because they were fouling off some tough pitches,” Hyde said. “He stayed after it. He did a great job getting into the sixth inning, then got his pitch count up because of all the foul balls, but I thought he competed extremely well tonight. Best start of the year for him.”

Still, the win Wednesday might’ve been a lot closer had two critical plays not been made. First, with right-hander Bryan Baker on the mound, Kjerstad ended the sixth and prevented at least one run by making a sliding catch in right-center field.

“Anytime you make a web-gem play like that, that’s what you play the game for,“ Kjerstad said. ”That’s a lot of fun to be able to make a play like that for the team, help us win the game.”

In the eighth, after right-hander Yennier Cano entered with two on and no outs, a double play between home and first ended that jam.

The Orioles still haven’t won consecutive games this season. They haven’t won a series, either. For one night, this inconsistent team clicked in every facet. But, until it becomes routine, it’s only one night.

“We’re gonna keep trying to string those together,” Kremer said.