On Thursday morning, prior to the first game of the Orioles’ doubleheader against the Mets, general manager Mike Elias reiterated that it’s still “mathematically possible” to avoid a fire sale.

He had just traded reliever Bryan Baker to the Rays for the 37th overall pick in Sunday’s MLB draft, a move that indicated the team could be willing to sell off assets and give up on this season to prepare for the future.

That trade, done earlier than most, needed to be completed before Sunday. So there is, as Elias pointed out, time for the team to get into contention and be a buyer before the July 31 deadline.

Thursday’s comeback in Game 1 of the doubleheader won’t be enough to get the Orioles there, but maybe, just maybe, this 3-1 win over the Mets will propel them closer. Now at 41-50, they are well out of the picture, but every win is valuable.

“We’ve just got to continue to buy in together. ... Just got to buy in together and continue to believe within ourselves,” said shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who delivered the key pinch-hit home run. “I feel like that’s the biggest thing that we’ve got to do, and continue to go out there and win ballgames.”

Charlie Morton was stellar, as he has been since late May. He pitched six innings, allowing just one run — an RBI double from Tyrone Taylor in the fifth — and four hits. He has a 2.76 ERA in eight starts since May 26. He could be moved in a deal if more wins don’t come.

“For 20 years this guy was Charlie Morton, and then for one month he was not Charlie Morton, he was somebody else,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “It’s been a headline here for a while. I think we probably need to move away from that and just make the headline that Charlie’s been really good here for a while, probably one of the better pitchers in baseball over his last eight, nine, 10 starts.”

Grant Wolfram, called up to be the 27th man, then pitched two shutout innings to not only save the bullpen on a doubleheader day but to earn his first career win.

“Just with how the morning started out today, you lose a really good, high-leverage reliever to a trade,” Mansolino said. “Then all of a sudden we have this lefty that’s throwing about 98 with a slider, with a curveball, with command, shows up and just plows through two innings against probably one of the better lineups in the business right now.”

The Orioles’ offense — both potential trade chips such as Ramón Laureano and long-term staples such as Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg — failed to get anything going for the first seven innings off Mets starter David Peterson.

In the rare moments an Oriole got on base, it didn’t last. In the fourth, Westburg hit a single and then tried to advance to third on a base hit from Laureano, only to get thrown out. Two innings later, Holliday was picked off at first. Holliday also had a fielding error in the third.

But in the eighth Colton Cowser opened things with a single to knock Peterson out of the game. Mansolino, who admitted to being frustrated with the way the offense performed against Peterson, could finally enact his plan. With a doubleheader, Mansolino wanted to give Henderson a few innings off and planned to use him as soon as Peterson, a left-handed pitcher, was out.

Because of how well Peterson performed — and how poorly the Orioles did — that didn’t happen until the bottom of the eighth. But it was better late than never, and Henderson pinch-hit for Luis Vázquez.

The wait was worth it, Henderson hitting a soaring homer 400 feet to the flag court to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead. It was the first career pinch-hit home run for Henderson and the first go-ahead pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning or later for an Oriole since 2016.

“They were battling out there all day, and I was glad to be able to come in and help out,” Henderson said. “Anytime we can steal a game like that, it can only give us a little extra confidence going into the next game and our next series.”

Mets reliever Ryne Stanek then walked four as the Orioles loaded the bases, but Baltimore added only one more run.

Félix Bautista got the save, his 18th of the season.

This article has been updated.