The Baltimore Orioles come to Minnesota for a weekend series after
having taken two of three from the Chicago White Sox and getting
the kind of all-around play that’s been hard to find so far this
season.
Meanwhile, the Twins are coming back home after a 4-2 road trip,
and three of the wins were in Baltimore last weekend.
The Twins open a three game series against Baltimore on Friday night at 7:10 p.m. from Target Field.
So, when the teams meet up in Minnesota on Friday night, the
Orioles will see if they can keep finding the timely hitting and
good pitching that let them win two in a row versus the White Sox.
The Twins will want to keep building off of their recent success,
especially when they played the Orioles last weekend.
Minnesota banged out 11 homers in last Saturday’s doubleheader
sweep of the Orioles, a big reason the Twins scored victories of
6-5 and 16-7.
In that doubleheader, Eddie Rosario had five hits, three of which
were homers. Teammate Jonathan Schoop, a former Oriole, finished
with two homers and four hits.
Alex Cobb (0-1, 11.88) goes for the Orioles while Martin Perez
(2-0, 5.31) starts for the Twins in the series opener. This is the
same matchup from the nightcap of that doubleheader when Cobb
allowed nine runs on 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings, including three
homers.
Cobb now has a 2-2 record and a 6.75 ERA in five starts against
Minnesota.
Perez gave up four runs on six hits through six innings and earned
the victory, and the Twins helped him by bashing eight of those
homers.
He is 3-4 with a 5.44 ERA in his eight career starts against the
Orioles.
The Twins just lost two of three to Houston on the road, the last
one being a 7-1 decision Wednesday where veteran Justin Verlander
beat them. He held Minnesota to one run in eight innings, that
coming on a Jorge Polanco homer.
The Twins called up Kohl Stewart to start that game and then sent
him back to Triple-A Rochester after the game.
Home runs were big for the Twins on the trip as they finished with
15 overall and averaged nearly seven runs per game.
“I thought it was a very good trip,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli
told MLB.com. “Obviously, coming (to Houston), it is a difficult
place to play and it’s against a good team, but I think our guys
battled pretty well … obviously, we want to win every game, but
overall, it was a very, very solid trip.”
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli
The Orioles will be hoping for more success against the Twins in
Minnesota than they had in Baltimore last weekend.
John Means gave the Orioles another strong start Wednesday, got the
win, and might be the team’s biggest surprise this season. He
developed a strong change-up and uses that in a big way, a major
reason he’s 3-2 with a 1.74 ERA.
Stevie Wilkerson hit his first career homer in the win. The Orioles
were without first baseman Chris Davis in the last game, but
manager Brandon Hyde told the media it would be a one-game absence.
“He had to miss (the game),” Hyde said. “He had a personal matter.
We had a two-man bench, and we made it through … he’s going to
meet us in Minnesota. Everything’s good on that front.”
The Orioles also made a minor move, trading pitcher Mike Wright to
Seattle for a minor-league infielder. Wright had been designated
for assignment on Sunday, and the Orioles received Ryne Ogren, who
was then assigned to Class A Delmarva.