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MINNEAPOLIS – An off-day didn’t provide a reset for the Orioles. Facing a right-handed starting pitcher wasn’t a reprieve.
Striking out 11 times against the Twins’ Pablo López in five innings and 17 overall wasn’t going to bring them back from an early deficit.
Cade Povich allowed five runs in the third, including Carlos Correa’s 458-foot shot into the second deck in left field. López had hitters barreling air, and the Orioles lost their third consecutive game 9-1 before an announced crowd of 19,779 at Target Field.
It seemed like the appropriate venue for target practice.
Povich retired six of the first seven batters, with Correa reaching on an infield hit leading off the second, but Trevor Larnach and Willi Castro singled with one out in the third and Byron Buxton put the Twins ahead with a 109.7 mph double off the left field fence. Ryan Jeffers followed with a two-run single into right field with the infield in.
Cedric Mullins raced back and jumped to catch Ty France’s 410-foot fly ball on the center field track, but Correa demolished a fastball for a 5-0 lead.
The bullpen looked like it would again get busy early with Povich at 60 pitches through the third. Coby Mayo’s fielding error extended the inning and the Twins sent nine batters to the plate. But Povich retired the side in order in the fourth, thanks to a nice diving stop and throw by Jackson Holliday to rob Larnach, and again in the fifth and sixth to bring him to a career-high 103 pitches.
“That’s the story," said manager Brandon Hyde. "We had nothing going offensively. I thought Cade just had one bad inning. Misfired on a couple pitches. Gave us six innings. We were just pretty empty offensively.”
The Orioles are 13-21, the first time being eight games below .500 since July 3, 2022. They beat the Twins in Minnesota to start a 10-game winning streak.
They’re going in the other direction.
"I just feel like the big thing is you just can’t go out there and try to force it to happen," said Gunnar Henderson. "Just got to go out there and try to string it together each and every night and go out there and try to progress in the right way and not force it to happen. Because if you try to force it, then obviously, it doesn’t really turn out too well. I feel like that’s the biggest thing is just go out there and continue to try to string together good at-bats. We had some good at-bats, just didn’t cash in today."
Matt Bowman inherited two runners from Cionel Pérez in the seventh and Buxton homered to left field. Bowman allowed another run in the inning – Mullins made a sensational diving catch to prevent further damage - and he’s been scored upon in five of his last seven appearances.
López came out of the game after the fifth inning because the strikeouts vaulted him to 98 pitches. He fanned the side three times. Former Orioles reliever Danny Coulombe extended his scoreless streak to 15 appearances by retiring the side in order in the sixth and striking out two.
Holliday extended his hitting streak to six games with a two-out single in the second inning at 108.6 mph off the bat. He’s 5-for-11 this month.
López retired 11 of the first 13 batters with seven strikeouts, a total he reached through the third, along with 11 whiffs and 56 pitches thrown. He walked Gunnar Henderson leading off the fourth, induced two ground balls and surrendered an RBI double to Ryan Mountcastle on a 112 mph line drive into the left field corner.
The next four Orioles struck out and López was done for the night.
"He’s got a few plus pitches and it’s a really good fastball, really good changeup," Hyde said. "We had a tough time squaring him up. We’ve seen him be like that before. We hung in there in some at-bats, but way too many strikeouts.”
Povich retired the last 10 batters but his ERA went from 5.16 to 5.55. One bad inning spoiled the whole start.
"I think just maybe a little bit wrong pitch, maybe a little bit wrong location on some of the at-bats before some of the real damage was done," Povich said. "I think overall, it wasn't necessarily the damage that occurred that inning. I think it was a little bit of what happened before that maybe let it go from maybe two or three runs to five.
"Pitch six innings and you have five really good innings, but having one inning like that for myself, I'm not easy on myself. So for me, I'm gonna look at that inning and, to have five innings that were really good like they were, and to have one inning like that where essentially it makes it a different game, it’s something I've got to look at and get consistent with what those other five innings look like.”
It created another hole to climb that proved too deep.
“I keep answering that same question," Hyde said. “Yeah, we’re having a tough time kind of coming back and we’re giving up a lot of runs early. We’re not handling it real well.”
* Charlie Morton is starting Wednesday night.
* Samuel Basallo hit his fourth home run tonight for Triple-A Norfolk, connecting off Nashville’s Brandon Woodruff. He started at first base.
Kyle Brnovich allowed one run and two hits with six strikeouts in five innings. His ERA is 3.98.
