NEW YORK — The Orioles didn’t arrive in the Bronx with a terrible hangover today. They celebrated hard last night, dousing each other with champagne and beer and handing out singles all over Yankee Stadium.

Relief starter Marcus Stroman failed to record a single out in the first inning until facing his seventh batter, leading to three runs and a lead from start to finish in the Orioles’ 9-7 victory in front of 41,010 spectators.

They were up 9-3 in the ninth before Matt Bowman allowed four runs, the last three on Aaron Judge’s 57th home run. Keegan Akin recorded his first save since 2022.

Zach Eflin, battling unusual control issues, hit a career-high five walks and came out after 4 2/3 innings in his shortest start since June 5 at Miami. The bullpen recorded 3 1/3 scoreless games until Bowman came in, and the Orioles improved to 88-70.

The Tigers also won tonight, putting the magic number at one for the Orioles to secure the home wild card in a series that begins Oct. 1. They are now within four games of first place.

Their offense ended with 17 hits: 14 singles and three doubles.

Gunnar Henderson reached the plate with an infield hit in the first inning, followed by singles from Jordan Westburg, Anthony Santander, Colton Cowser, Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn. A few balls missed – Westburg’s at 103.1 mph and Mountcastle’s at 108.6 – but others reached 69.5, 78 and 92.8 mph.

The six consecutive singles to start a game set a club record. The Orioles scored five in a row against the Rays on September 24, 2008: Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Aubrey Huff and Oscar Salazar, followed by Luke Scott’s double.

The Orioles had all the bases loaded tonight and Cowser hit a fly ball into the left corner that Jasson Domínguez ran over, scoring two runs. Santander was thrown out at third base. Mountcastle’s sharp grounder to center increased the lead to 3-0.

“The opposite of sluggish,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Just really good at-bats from the first inning. Nice to get some runs there early. Eff probably didn’t have his best command tonight, but he battled and got out of some sticky situations. But offensively we had a really good night.”

Mountcastle said he has been feeling good at bat since being activated from the injured list on Tuesday.

“I had a few at-bats down there in Triple-A to get my timing right,” he said, “and I’m just going to use these last few games here to hopefully be ready for the playoffs.”

Stroman was moved to the bullpen but got the call after Nestor Cortes went on the injured list with a left elbow injury. He left the field to boos after allowing five runs and 10 hits, all singles, in 3 1/3 innings, and Clayton Beeter let a runner take over score on Santander’s double.

Santander equalized with Cowser’s double and took a 7-1 lead. The mood in the crowd did not improve.

At least the Orioles started to sprinkle in some extra-base hits.

Henderson was 3-for-3 in the fourth inning, including a two-run single to chase Stroman away, and is 30-for-86 (.349) this month.

Eflin worked two walks in the first inning and got a double-play grounder from Austin Wells. He worked two more walks in the second inning and Anthony Volpe singled to make it 3-1. Eflin struck out seven in a row before Anthony Rizzo followed with a leadoff single in the fifth inning and Juan Soto singled the ball into the middle of the inning for his 41st out.^st Home run with two outs.

Judge hit a single, Austin Wells walked, and Hyde threw Eflin out of the game after 92 pitches. Giancarlo Stanton reached first base with an infield hit against Jacob Webb, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. flied out.

Eflin’s season-high walks before tonight were four on July 19 at Yankee Stadium. He has allowed 10 walks against New York this season and 14 against everyone else.

Soto struck out 34 times for a total of 17 against Eflin to begin the game, allowing one walk and one strikeout in his first two at-bats.

“I think he was just cautious with Soto and Judge. I’m not really sure,” Hyde said. “The number of throws was kind of high. The throw to Soto, he probably wants back for the home run. I think he made the throws mostly when he had to. The control just wasn’t what it usually is.”

“Honestly, I’m just stuck in my technique today,” Eflin said. “I had a tough battle getting the ball across the plate, but I made the throws when I needed to. The offense was there. It was a great win. The offense had my back. The defense got some great wins, but the control was definitely a little frustrating.

“They’ve been pretty tough on me the last few times I’ve played them, and I’ve struggled to throw the ball across the plate the last few times here at Yankee Stadium, but that’s not something I’m worried about, especially after this win. Scoring nine runs always helps. I’m going to get back to my technique and go out there next time.”

His next start will be in the postseason.

“Obviously I’m super excited to be part of these guys and happy to be here,” he said. “It’s such a great group of guys and I’m looking forward to having a great run with everyone in October.”

Cedric Mullins hit two singles, a double, a walk and stole two more bases, giving him 32 total bases, two shy of his career high in 2022. He scored on James McCann’s broken-bat single in the fifth inning and Westburg’s single in the eighth.

“We had a lot of singles, a lot of decisive hits. We kept the line moving,” Hyde said.

“I thought our at-bats were really good all night. You can never score enough here, as we almost saw, so it was great for us offensively.”

Danny Coulombe duly shut down the team in the seventh inning and Gregory Soto did the same in the eighth inning, striking out two players.

The Orioles are 8-4 against the Yankees and 4-1 in the Bronx, where they have scored 40 runs.

The dynamic – if there is such a thing in baseball – has shifted.

“I think you can tell just by the way the games are looking,” Eflin said. “It seems like we’re peaking at just the right time, which is really important for October baseball, and we’re having a lot of fun doing it. So it’s going to be a lot of fun going forward.”

“I believe in our guys in this locker room and what we can do,” Mountcastle said. “We’re a really good team offensively and defensively and hopefully that will lead to success.”