The Minnesota Twins are on a roll against Baltimore, having not lost to the Orioles since 2018.
Minnesota won its 16th consecutive game versus Baltimore on Monday, and the visiting Twins will try to keep their run against Baltimore going when the teams meet again Tuesday night.
According to Stats Perform, the 16-game run is the best current winning streak by one MLB team versus another. The Minneapolis Star Tribune added that the Twins’ record for consecutive wins against one team is 17, which adds that much more intrigue to Tuesday’s contest.
Truthfully, the opponent hasn’t mattered much for Baltimore lately. Monday’s loss was the team’s 14th straight (tied for second longest in team history) and dropped the Orioles to 5-23 for the month of May.
The Twins edged the Orioles 3-2 on Monday, thanks to two runs in the top of the 10th. Rob Refsnyder scored on an Adam Plutko wild pitch to break a 1-1 tie, and Jorge Polanco added a solo homer later in the inning.
After giving up an RBI double to DJ Stewart to lead off the bottom of the inning, Hansel Robles put runners on first and third with one out but kept the tying run from scoring for his fourth save.
The Twins have been hurt by injuries in recent weeks, and left fielder Trevor Larnach now is day-to-day with a left foot injury after being hit by a pitch Sunday versus Kansas City.
Despite the health issues, however, Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli likes how his team is pushing onward.
“I’m really comfortable with how we’re operating right now and how our guys are playing,” Baldelli said. “But we’ll see how it goes going forward and, hopefully, our guys feel good, continue to feel good, and play good.”
Michael Pineda (3-2, 2.62 ERA) gets the start for the Twins on Tuesday. He’s 6-3 with a 3.68 ERA against the Orioles in his career.
Rookie left-hander Bruce Zimmermann (2-3, 5.15) goes for Baltimore, and this is going to be his first career appearance against Minnesota.
Right now, the Orioles’ problems on offense — especially with runners in scoring position — continue.
Baltimore went just 1-for-8 with those situations Monday, the only hit coming on the Stewart double in the 10th that made it 3-2.
During the last eight games, the Orioles are just 5-for-64 with runners in scoring position. That’s been a big reason for their troubles, as most of these losses have been close games.
Overall, Baltimore now has dropped 21 of its last 23 games.
The Orioles made a few moves Monday, calling up catcher Austin Wynns — who struck out in the 10th Sunday — from Triple-A Norfolk and optioning catcher Chance Sisco back to the same team.
Right now, Baltimore is just trying to stay settled and hope for better results sooner rather than later.
“We’ve got a good group of guys, some veterans, and we’ve had some talks and we’ve tried to talk it out and see what we can do differently,” said Ryan Mountcastle, who homered in Monday’s loss. “We’re going to keep moving forward and try to win the next day.”