The Gunnar Henderson hype machine is here, and it just got louder Wednesday when he smacked one right out of the park in his first Major League Baseball debut against the Cleveland Guardians on the road. The Baltimore Orioles, who won that game 4-0, had just promoted Henderson with the hopes of getting a boost to their slumping offense, and he absolutely gave them that with this home run in the fourth inning off of Guardians starter Triston McKenzie.

With that home run, Gunnar Henderson made some Baltimore fans reminisce about the time when they still had Trey Mancini on the team. That's because Henderson is the first Orioles player to go deep in his first-ever MLB game since Trey Mancini, who was shipped by the Orioles to the Houston Astros ahead of the 2022 MLB trade deadline in early August.

Via ESPN Stats & Info:

“Gunnar Henderson is the 1st Orioles player to hit a home run in his MLB debut since Trey Mancini in 2016. At 21 years and 63 days old, he is also the youngest player in franchise history to homer in his debut.”

Before being called up by the Orioles, Gunnar Henderson had been tearing it up in the minors, where he batted a combined .297/.416/.531 with 19 home runs and 76 RBI this year while playing with triple-A Norfolk and double-A Bowie.

Prior to their win over the Guardians, the Orioles had scored just two runs over the previous two games, both losses to the Houston Astros and to Cleveland in the series opener.