Brooks Lee had struck out in each of his first three at-bats on Thursday, had made a critical error in the field and was quickly in an 0-2 hole in his fourth plate appearance.
But with a pair of runners on and a pair out in a game that had been tied for innings, Lee took ball three before unleashing on a Gregory Soto fastball, flipping the narrative of his day.
The ball traveled over 400 feet and Lee settled for a two-run double, one which broke the tie and helped lift the Twins to a 5-2 victory in the series finale on Thursday afternoon at Target Field. With it, the Twins have now won a season-high five straight games, taking this one after the Orioles frequently looked like they were on the verge of breaking through.
Working a day earlier than expected, starter Bailey Ober gritted out a start where nothing seemed to come easy, yet still put his team in a good position to win a ballgame.
Because of Joe Ryan’s illness, Ober’s start was bumped up a day — he was still on normal rest because of Monday’s off day — giving him the day game against the Orioles instead of the night game against the San Francisco Giants on Friday that he had been planning on.
The Orioles clogged the bases with at least a runner on — sometimes two — in each of his five innings. But they could do little to turn those runners into runs, scoring once in the second and again in the third (an unearned run after Lee’s error).
After each of the first two runners of the fourth inning reached base, Ober got a critical double play. An inning later, the Orioles had a pair of runners in scoring position to begin the fifth and Ober worked around it, letting out a show of excitement as he walked off the mound for the final time.
And while he was doing that, the Twins’ offense did just enough to keep them in it.
Though Byron Buxton did not have a hit in Thursday’s win, snapping a seven-game hitting streak, his fingerprints were all over the Twins’ win. He drew a leadoff walk to begin the first inning and came around to score on Ty France’s RBI knock — one of two on the day for the first baseman. He scored again on Lee’s hit and also threw a runner out at the plate in the sixth inning to keep the Orioles’ lead to just one at the time.
The Twins erased that lead in the bottom of the frame when Trevor Larnach blasted his fifth home run of the season, and that tie remained intact until Lee’s big hit innings later.
Related Articles
Back from injured list, Royce Lewis aims to play “a little bit smarter”
Outfielders power Twins past Orioles for fourth straight win
Carlos Correa finds his swing as Twins clobber Orioles
Twins’ return mean it’s back to St. Paul for infielder Edouard Julien
Five weeks into the season, five Twins observations
Leave a Reply