Once the faucet opened, there was no shutting it off.

The Orioles poured on runs in the eighth inning to turn a frustratingly close affair into one of their few blowout wins this season. The RBI double from Cedric Mullins, the two-run single from Ryan O’Hearn, the three-run home run from Jordan Westburg — those were the hammer blows in a seven-run eighth inning that gave Baltimore a 10-1 victory against the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night.

Before that cascade of runs, the Orioles leaned on a stout pitching performance from right-hander Zach Eflin. He built the foundation from which Baltimore could leap, and the starting pitcher covered for an offense that wasted many early opportunities until the dam broke against Tigers relievers.

The Orioles (27-39) have waited for just such an inning.

The lopsided win marked Baltimore’s fourth this season by a margin of five or more runs, and the last time the Orioles achieved that was April 16. And this is the first time Baltimore has scored 10 or more runs since March 27, which was opening day in Toronto.

“For the last month, it’s been like, ‘Man, we’d love to throw up 10 tonight. It will make it a little bit easier,’” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “I’d have love to have done that the first few innings. You’re kind of pulling your hair out there in the seventh. ... We’ll take 10 however you get them.”

Turns out, it’s helpful to have an almost-fully healthy lineup. Mullins and Westburg returned Tuesday from hamstring strains, and they combined to produce four hits and four RBIs. Every player in the lineup recorded at least one hit, and the team’s 16 hits were a season high.

“You’ve seen it the last two years, what the offense is capable of doing,” Westburg said. “And what we have now is plenty good enough to go out and win series and win ballgames, and with guys coming back even off the IL, it’s going to just keep getting better. So it’s exciting to kind of dream on what could happen and what we could do and just the possibilities that this club has.”

The dream is made more difficult by the poor start to the season. Even with the win, the Orioles are 12 games below .500. To get back in the mix before the trade deadline, Baltimore must win at a high percentage.

But there is a positive feeling around the club, buoyed by the returns of Colton Cowser, Westburg and Mullins.

“You see tonight, we were able to put 10 runs against a really good team,” Ramón Urías said. “We are playing better at the right time and we’re getting our boys back and we feel better.”

Starts of the kind Eflin brought will help on a quest toward .500.

When he walked off the mound with two outs in the seventh inning, he deserved the serenade of applause from Orioles fans who stood as the right-hander exited the field. Before one run scored against him in that frame, Eflin had produced another gem that added to his list full of them.

For most of Eflin’s time in Baltimore, this is who he has been: a stabilizer for the entire team, not just the pitching staff.

“It’s a blessing to go out and compete with these guys,” Eflin said, “so being able to go out there and trust every single guy behind me, trust every guy in the lineup, it’s just been a lot of fun, man. Just really happy to be here.”

After the Orioles had lost three of their last four, Eflin’s performance over 6 2/3 innings propelled them to a bounce-back win.

Eflin has made a habit of this. After arriving from the Tampa Bay Rays last season, he pitched to a 2.60 ERA in nine starts. His next nine starts this year, including Wednesday, have resulted in a 4.08 ERA. It’s only that high because of two uncharacteristic outings last month, shortly after he returned from a lat strain.

In those two outings, Eflin allowed a combined 12 earned runs. Then he posted seven scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox, followed it with a winning effort against the Seattle Mariners and continued the hot streak with one run in 6 2/3 frames against the Tigers.

“It seems like every outing he’s getting better and better and better,” Mansolino said.

For much of the game, Baltimore held on to a narrow lead courtesy of Urías’ third-inning two-run homer. A run scored off Eflin in the seventh, but a crisp play from Urías at third led to a tag-out at home. Then left-hander Keegan Akin entered and struck out Jahmai Jones, stranding runners on the corners.

“It was great. I mean, otherwise, we’d be in a tie game and having to face a better pitcher on the mound, and it would be a different story, I’m sure,” Urías said. “We practice that, we work on that, and thankfully I could do that, the play.”

That was as close as Detroit would come. Baltimore turned on its offensive might late in the game. It began with Adley Rutschman’s double and Gunnar Henderson’s run-scoring single in the seventh. It continued with a flurry of runs in the eighth.

The Orioles could finally exhale. They blew an opponent out.

“To watch those guys there in the eighth and ninth work the at-bats, really good quality at-bats, and then get on, get them in, it almost became infectious,” Eflin said. “It was really fun to watch.”

Uncertain timeline for Grayson Rodriguez

Before the game, Mansolino didn’t have a clear timeline to share regarding right-hander Grayson Rodriguez beyond that he’s “progressing as expected” in his throwing program. Whether that means off flat ground or the mound is also unclear.

“The exact specifics I can’t get into,” Mansolino said. Rodriguez is on the 60-day injured list with a lat strain, but he also dealt with elbow inflammation in spring training. Asked whether Rodriguez is rehabbing both injuries or only the lat, Mansolino said he didn’t know.

“He probably needs to speak to that specifically,” Mansolino said. “I don’t feel comfortable answering that question. But I would say he never fully came back from the elbow, so it’s probably something, even if it is healed fully, which it might be, I’m sure it’s something that we’re conscious of as he builds himself back up to being a major league pitcher.”

Rodriguez has yet to appear in a game this season because his preparation was sidetracked in spring training. He was supposed to blossom into a possible ace for the Orioles after posting a 3.86 ERA in 116 2/3 innings, but he hasn’t had the opportunity.

Mansolino said he’s hopeful Rodriguez will pitch this season.

This article has been updated.