WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — At Sutter Health Park, the most obvious sign this is a minor league park is the grass berm in right field, where families bring blankets to watch what is now Major League Baseball. And, beyond that berm stand multiple trees, including one mighty oak.

Within that oak, a squirrel or bird may have had to take evasive maneuvers for safety as a baseball shot through its resting place.

In the sixth inning of the Orioles’ 7-4 win against the Athletics on Saturday night, the home run from Colton Cowser left mouths agape. It traveled 455 feet — the longest hit of his career — and sent fans scrambling on the berm either for cover or after the loose baseball that gave Baltimore a lead it wouldn’t lose.

“I just heard the snap of the bat, and then somebody goes, ‘Ooohhh,’” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “I looked up, and it went over the trees. I don’t think I’m amazed by it because we’ve kind of seen something similar before, but my goodness, he’ll probably tell you all about it.”

Cowser was humble.

“It felt great,” he said. “It’s one of those things that, when the swing’s feeling good and timing’s there, you don’t really feel when you make contact, and that was one of those ones.”

Since Cowser’s return from the 60-day injured list for a fractured thumb, he has proved how large an absence he really was. Cowser has a hit in all five games, including a double and two homers — and the latest hit came in loud fashion, an impossible-to-miss rocket into the trees that flipped the game in the Orioles’ favor.

The Orioles have won 10 of their last 13 games, and when asked what has led to the upturn in results, Ramón Laureano pointed to the returns of players from injury. More are to come back soon, but he and Cowser helped the Orioles produce more than five runs in a nine-inning game for the first time since May 17.

“When you’re talking about 10-plus guys on the IL, and now, little by little, they’re coming back, if you understand that, you know that things will turn around,” said Laureano, who finished with three hits and three RBIs in his second game back from injury. “That’s what we’re seeing right now.”

Baltimore (26-37) had to climb back from an early deficit after a poor start from right-hander Charlie Morton. The Orioles did so with a bullpen that posted zeroes — as it has the entire road trip, with 18 shutout innings in five games — along with key hits from Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and other stars.

Cowser’s was the most prominent, however, and it immediately followed a vital defensive play between Henderson and catcher Maverick Handley to end the fifth inning.

With two outs in the fifth, left-hander Keegan Akin entered with a runner on first base to face Lawrence Butler. The Athletics outfielder lashed the first pitch he saw into the left-field corner, and as it rattled around, JJ Bleday attempted to score from first.

He was rounding third by the time Henderson received the ball as the cutoff man in shallow left field. His throw home one-hopped the plate, and when Handley caught it, the sliding Bleday struck him and knocked him backward. But he held on for the third out, maintaining the level score.

The momentum from that run-saving play turned into Cowser’s homer, and it continued with another run that inning via a throwing error. Then Laureano, who blasted a two-run home run off right-hander Luis Severino in the fourth, added an RBI single in the seventh.

For that run to score, third base coach Buck Britton decided to send Henderson from second. The risk paid off when Henderson evaded the tag at the plate with a head-first dive.

“When Buck sent him, he’s probably five steps from the third base bag there when he sent him, and the guy actually made an accurate throw, and he put it right there, and Gunnar outran the ball and made an incredible slide,” Mansolino said.

Mansolino, the third base coach prior to being elevated to interim manager, said the rules that disallow catchers from blocking the plate give runners an incentive to dive headfirst into home.

“In the old day, you would never tell a baserunner to go in headfirst because the catcher would drop a leg on them and break a finger, break a neck,” Mansolino said. “But nowadays they can’t to that, so the headfirst slide is an advantage for the guys that use it.”

The decision from Mansolino to withdraw Morton after just 2 1/3 innings may have saved this from becoming a blowout. Morton wasn’t helped in the first inning, when Dylan Carlson misread Butler’s fly ball to left and it landed for a double. Jacob Wilson then knocked an RBI single as the Athletics (25-41) tied the score two batters into the bottom of the first.

But Morton did himself no favors. He suffered a regression to the issues that plagued him earlier this season, before two improved performances offered a glimmer of hope that the 41-year-old veteran could turn his season around.

Morton allowed four runs in that first inning, coming on two walks and three singles after Wilson’s knock. He called it a “sloppy” outing because of the lack of command.

It immediately elevated his pitch count, and although he didn’t allow a run in the second, he finished that frame with 68 pitches. The walk and hit batter with one out in the third forced Mansolino out of the dugout to replace Morton with right-hander Matt Bowman, who stranded the pair of runners and completed two additional scoreless frames.

The shutdown innings followed from there, just as they have all road trip. And it concluded with right-hander Félix Bautista’s save. Morton called the bullpen performance “admirable,” and it wasn’t just because of Saturday’s display. The relievers have done it for much of the season.

“The fact that I don’t hear anyone complaining about they’re tired, they’re gassed, they don’t want to pitch, they’re not available,” Morton said. “Everybody’s up and everybody’s willing to go out there and pitch. On a night like tonight when I go out there and throw two innings, and then they pick me up, it’s just huge.”

But the lasting impact of a bounce-back victory may be on whichever animal calls an oak tree home in right field, because that ball from Cowser came in hot.

This article has been updated.