ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — This is no longer the dome of doom, where Orioles teams came to lose.

Inside this tepid environment, where it’s always 72 degrees and the crowd seems equally lukewarm to the goings-on of the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore used to suffer. They used to come to Tropicana Field and get run out of the building. Between 2018 and 2022, for instance, the Orioles lost 31 of the 39 games they played here.

But times change, and the doldrum of a rebuild is behind Baltimore. The likes of Gunnar Henderson have made sure of that, and his first-pitch home run Monday set the tone for the 5-2 victory that sealed the Orioles’ first four-game sweep of the Rays at Tropicana Field in 10 attempts.

“A four-game sweep is so difficult in the big leagues, and we’ve done that twice this year,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I think our guys are too young, honestly — maybe our older guys understand how hard that is — but our younger guys, they don’t really understand that this is not normal.”

Teams don’t just go on the road and beat another team four times, “no matter what their record is. That’s just super hard to do in the major leagues,” Hyde said.

The dominance during this road swing to Florida stands in sharp contrast to recent seasons.

Despite competing in what has long been considered the most difficult division in baseball, the Orioles have proven their mettle against teams that used to beat up routinely on Baltimore during the rebuild. These Rays aren’t of the same caliber of Rays teams that went to the postseason three straight years, but it wasn’t long ago when Tampa Bay commanded the season series.

In 2021, the Rays won 18 of the 19 games against the Orioles. The formula changed in 2023, when Baltimore won 12 more games than it lost against divisional foes. The same control of the division is beginning this season, and a four-game sweep of the Rays is only a slice of the success.

With Monday’s win, the Orioles are 17-6 against the American League East this year. They’ve outscored their division rivals 125 to 62 — doubling their run production compared to what they concede.

For the first time since 1987, the Orioles have swept two four-game series in a season. They’re on a run with 14 wins in their last 18 games, and they finished an eight-game road trip with a 6-2 record (and those two losses were each one-run defeats).

“Four-game sweep, on the road, it is impressive no matter who you beat,” right-hander Corbin Burnes said. “This is a good team that has done a lot of winning in the past years, so to come in and do really everything well — we pitched great, played good defense, hit the ball well — it’s tough to beat us when we’re doing all those things well.”

Burnes plays a major role in why Baltimore is excelling this season. He is a part of a rotation that entered with the third-best starter ERA in the majors. He lowered his ERA to 2.08 with seven strong innings, sealing his ninth consecutive quality start — the longest such streak for the club since Erik Bedard in 2007.

He might’ve left without any runs on the board had a second-inning mishap not occurred. Jordan Westburg, who had yet to record an error this season while playing high-end second base and third base, dropped a routine popup behind first base that allowed José Caballero to reach base. Instead of ending the inning, the dropped ball brought Alex Jackson to the plate. And despite entering with two hits in 46 at-bats this year, Jackson clubbed his first homer of the season to straightaway center field.

Still, Burnes maneuvered through the Rays order from there. He walked one but struck out six, and his cutter — so often his finest pitch — induced eight whiffs. Burnes’ ERA against AL East opponents this year is only 1.13.

“I feel like I’m throwing the ball well, but I feel like there’s still a lot of room to improve,” Burnes said. “There’s been some mistakes that have been made, but for the most part, been able to bounce back and get out of innings when we need to. But I definitely don’t think this is the best I’ve thrown this year.”

If this wasn’t Burnes at his sharpest, the Orioles will still take it. By pushing through seven innings, Baltimore required only two relievers to finish the game. And with a seven-man bullpen as the Orioles carry six starters, minimizing the workload is imperative with difficult matchups against the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies upcoming.

It’s not just the pitching, however, that is keeping the Orioles in games. The lineup is one of the most potent in baseball — their 104 homers lead the majors — and Henderson is playing like an MVP candidate.

“Gunnar’s exhausted,” Hyde said, “and to lead off the game with a homer just shows you what he’s made of.”

Henderson’s homer was his seventh leadoff dinger and 21st long ball of the season. Catcher James McCann kept it going in the third. After Tampa Bay took the lead with Jackson’s homer, McCann’s 401-foot no-doubt blast to left field leveled the game.

And Ryan O’Hearn, the designated hitter, pushed the game into Baltimore’s favor with a two-run double in the fifth and a one-run single in the seventh. Both times, O’Hearn faced two-strike counts in long at-bats (eight and nine pitches, respectively).

“He can really grind out an at-bat, and he gets big hits for us constantly,” Hyde said.

The Orioles made this a relatively routine four-game sweep inside a stadium that was no haven in past years. But the Orioles aren’t the team of yesteryears, and the rest of the AL East knows it.

“I think it just speaks to the competitive spirit of our guys, and not being satisfied with three out of four,” O’Hearn said. “Coming in tonight, wraparound series, we’re heading back tonight. Not the most ideal conditions. But guys showed up and we competed our butts off and figured out a way to get the sweep.”