BOSTON — The Orioles tried to be new and innovative.

Last year, the team had water-based celebrations for extra-base hits. They did a sprinkler celebration to honor doubles and triples and drank from a funnel called the homer hose after home runs. The team also added Mr. Splash, who sprayed down his section in left-center after an exciting hit or good inning from a pitcher.

This year, the Orioles turned to a new theme: motorcycles, or scooters depending on who you asked. A number of players, including lefty reliever Danny Coulombe, ride scooters to and from the ballpark.

So on opening day, when a player hit a double or triple, they flicked their wrists like they were revving an engine. There was no prior discussion, they said, it just came together in the moment.

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They didn’t know if it would stick. But a few days later, Cole Irvin ordered a pair of handlebars from Amazon, hoping to continue the theme. That night, after Ryan Mountcastle homered, he returned to the dugout and was offered the new accessory. He strutted down the dugout, holding the handlebars up like he was driving down the street.

“They handed them to me, I didn’t really know what to do with it,” he said.

Mountcastle was tentative, as they all were, about whether this new theme would be what they would use all season. By Tuesday, the 10th game of the season, it was clear it would not.

The Orioles, aside from the first two games of the season when they scored 24 combined runs, haven’t clicked yet on offense. It culminated in two losses in Pittsburgh last weekend, when the team had just 10 total hits and failed to get the big knock when they needed it.

But on Tuesday, as the Orioles began a three-game series against the Red Sox, Colton Cowser arrived on second base in the second inning and broke out the old sprinkler motion. The dugout followed suit.

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The waterworks didn’t stop there. The Orioles had 13 hits in their 7-1 win, with four players having multihit days. They looked much more like the offense that won 101 wins a year ago and less like the one they started this season with.

“The sprinklers are back,” Cowser said. “We had a couple stagnant days on offense and we just thought it was a pretty good year last year so we thought we’d go ahead and try to bring it back.”

Does this mean the funnel is also back after home runs?

“We’ll see,” he said with a shrug.

There’s no word on whether this one will continue either. But, at least for one night, the familiar routine helped the Orioles snap out of their slug.

Danielle Allentuck

danielle.allentuck@thebaltimorebanner.com

Danielle Allentuck

Danielle Allentuck covers the Orioles for The Baltimore Banner. She previously reported on the Rockies for the Denver Gazette and general sports assignments for The New York Times as part of its fellowship program. A Maryland native, Danielle grew up in Montgomery County and graduated from Ithaca College.

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