HOUSTON — What had been a stagnating season received a jolt of life this weekend, and suddenly the gears appear to be grinding forward once more for the Orioles.

The latest burst of energy and intrigue for this losing team arrived Sunday in the form of top prospect Samuel Basallo. But it extends beyond the 21-year-old to a whole cast of young characters looking to cement their places in Baltimore’s future. The Orioles’ postseason hopes ended months ago; now, with eyes on 2026 competitiveness, this feels somewhat like a dress rehearsal.

And, if this is a rehearsal, this is a game Baltimore will hope to replicate frequently. It featured the first hit of Basallo’s career, a 101 mph rocket that landed for a two-run single. But it also included the sort of pass-the-baton offense that puts up runs in bunches and resulted in a 12-0 win against the Houston Astros at Daikin Park.

“We do not want our young players to play in a losing environment,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “We might not win every game, but we have to play to win the game. We want these kids to understand that playing to win the game is very different than going out there and trying to put up your numbers.”

In doing so, the numbers will follow. Take the fifth inning, for example, which featured a veritable veteran at the advanced age of 26. The rest were 25, 24 and 21. They went single, single, single, home run against the Houston Astros, and they showed this lineup’s potential.

Jordan Westburg, that veteran despite being 26, knocked the decisive blow of that inning. His three-run shot followed singles from Dylan Beavers, Jeremiah Jackson and Jackson Holliday to provide the Orioles with a comfortable lead to which they’d continually add.

But the promise of this weekend extended to various aspects of play, just as some of the detrimental moments underscored the mistakes that can come from youth.

This series started with 7 2/3 innings of perfect pitching from right-hander Brandon Young. On Saturday, in a 12-inning loss, there was much to like, including Beavers’ first major league hit. And Sunday, with Basallo the latest hype-inducing prospect to enter the fold, Baltimore closed out a series win with right-hander Dean Kremer dealing.

To come here, to face a division-leading foe and take two of the three games is a major positive for a team that has flunked other tests this season. And it plays into the momentum Mansolino hopes to build over the last month and a half.

“We’ve got to kind of find a way right now to find out about our players, make sure they get better here at the big league level and get prepared for next year,” Mansolino said before the game. “We also got to figure out how to win games here, too, because I don’t think it’s a good thing if we go over this next month and a half and we lose the momentum we’ve built up over the last three months.

“That wouldn’t be ideal, and I don’t think that would be smart,” he continued. “And while we do want to see these players, and we’re prospect crazy throughout the industry and in Baltimore — prospect crazy, it’s a real thing — we can’t lose sight of the fact we are in the big leagues and the Baltimore Orioles winning games is very important, regardless of the circumstances surrounding it.”

Perhaps they can do both. Perhaps the Orioles can test their young players — the likes of whom filled the lineup Sunday — and still win. After all, Baltimore has turned a corner. Since June, the Orioles are 36-31. At that pace over the course of 162 games, they would win about 87 games. That is right on the border of what it takes to make the postseason.

With the right offseason supplements, and with the continued improvement of these newly minted everyday players, the Orioles can set themselves up for a 2026 run.

“If we want to force the front office’s hand, or force things to happen in this organization, we’ve got to prove that we’re able to play winning baseball,” Westburg said. “That’s very important to this clubhouse. That’s very important to me. I hate losing, and I don’t care what the clubhouse looks like or what the record looks like, who we’re facing. My one goal when we step on the field is to play winning baseball, any way I possibly can.”

In the near term, Baltimore produced one of its best games this season by rectifying its production with runners in scoring position. In Saturday’s loss, the Orioles finished 0-for-14 in that department. On Sunday they hit 7-for-14, and Westburg was a major reason.

Westburg hit his 15th homer of the year, which ties Holliday for the most on the team, in the fifth inning. He added a fourth RBI with a seventh-inning single, and his fourth knock landed in the eighth for a career-high fifth RBI. As part of that five-run eighth, Basallo notched the first hit of his career, splitting the infield on a line.

“It was just really special for me,” Basallo said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “Being able to be here today with my family, with my loved ones, that’s what really means a lot to me.”

Basallo said his parents booked plane tickets from the Dominican Republic to Houston about 15 minutes after they called their son to inform him he was being promoted. Two hours after the call, they were at the airport, ready to go. At Daikin Park, they hugged and celebrated a moment they’ll never forget.

“It was an incredibly special feeling,” Basallo said. “I’m not going to say I wasn’t nervous, but it really just was a special feeling, and when I finally stepped into the batter’s box, I think it all hit me and I felt really happy.”

It could’ve been a wider gap, had one man in right field not played the villain twice. Gunnar Henderson, whose web gem at shortstop prevented a run off Kremer in the second inning, was robbed himself by Astros outfielder Jesús Sánchez. Sánchez leaped at the fence and pulled back a would-be grand slam in the third, forcing the Orioles to settle for a sacrifice fly.

And in the seventh, after two runs scored, Basallo came close to making his first major league hit a three-run homer. Instead, Sánchez was there, jumping to pull back another. Basallo whipped off his helmet as he passed first base, thwarted for a day.

“Bummed for him on the home run, but also an opportunity to kind of learn how he handles adversity,” Mansolino said. “This isn’t going to be easy. This is going to be really hard. Watching how he handled that was a positive, and then the bigger positive, obviously, the big hit right there into right-center.”

The run support wasn’t necessary, not with the way Kremer pitched for the second straight start. Last week, Kremer allowed one run in eight innings. Against the Astros, he worked seven scoreless frames on a career-high 114 pitches.

Kremer often jokes with Mansolino that he wants to stay in for 120 pitches each start. “The guys back in the day got 150, the reason why they threw 600 innings every year,” Kremer said. “It’d be cool to throw 120.”

To have his leash extended by Mansolino on Sunday was an honor.

“It’s a great feeling having them have the confidence in me to try to get that job done,” Kremer said.

There’s a reason for that confidence, of course. Since May, Kremer has shown himself to be a reliable starter. He held a 7.04 ERA after his first six outings. Then he posted a 3.16 ERA over his next 19 games — the sort of form that suggests Kremer will be a critical piece of next year’s rotation.

Take all of that into the equation, and there’s plenty to watch the remainder of this season. The World Series aspirations in spring training went awry almost immediately. What’s remaining, however, is still captivating baseball.

“It is important for us to keep stacking those together,” Westburg said, “to keep remembering that, yeah, this doesn’t happen this year, but we’re playing for the future.”

This article has been updated.