MINNEAPOLIS – The first two Twins batters struck out tonight and six of seven were retired. Charlie Morton appeared to be launching his redemption tour at Target Field.
Byron Buxton had to ruin it in the third inning by launching a curveball into the second deck for a three-run homer.
Morton was removed after the fourth with his pitch count at 70, Harrison Bader provided some cushion with a two-run shot off Keegan Akin in the seventh, and the Orioles lost again, 5-2, to fall nine games below .500 for the first time since July 2, 2022.
The Orioles have dropped four in a row and 11 of 15. Their last four-game skid came within a stretch of five straight defeats from July 9-13, 2024.
Ramón Laureano led off the top of the third inning with a 425-foot shot to center field off Simeon Woods Richardson for his fourth home run of the season. The Orioles had an early lead, but it didn’t last long.
Willi Castro singled in the bottom half of the inning, Morton hit Kody Clemens and Buxton tagged the next pitch, which hasn’t brought the same results for the veteran right-hander that it did in previous seasons.
Morton hung a curve and the Twins led 3-1.
The Orioles pushed back Dean Kremer to Thursday afternoon and chose Morton to start tonight rather than try Akin again as an opener. Morton was only the second pitcher in club history to begin a season losing in his first six appearances, and he fell to 0-7 tonight, though his ERA was shaved from 9.76 to 9.38.
Bryan Baker began to warm in the fourth inning but Morton got a 6-4-3 double play after Brooks Lee’s leadoff single. Baker tossed a scoreless fifth, but Akin inherited a runner from Seranthony Domínguez in the seventh and Bader belted his first career pinch-hit homer for a 5-2 lead.
Like Cade Povich the previous night, Morton was burned by one bad inning. He let the last two batters in the order reach base and left a ball in the middle of the plate for the hot-hitting Buxton, who’s homered in three consecutive games.
Laureano doubled with two outs in the fifth and scored on Heston Kjerstad’s single. Emmanuel Rivera singled to put runners on the corners, but Danny Coulombe replaced Richardson and struck out Cedric Mullins.
Mullins was 1-for-21 this month and 1-for-25 going back to April after popping up to end the seventh.
Jackson Holliday left two runners on base in the sixth. Kjerstad singled again with one out in the seventh and was stranded. Ryan Mountcastle grounded into a 4-3 double play in the eighth after singles by Gunnar Henderson and Ryan O’Hearn.
The Orioles finished with 10 hits but are in danger of being swept.
* Tyler O’Neill went 1-for-3 with an RBI single for Triple-A Norfolk before leaving for a pinch-runner, a precaution due to a wet field.
David Bañuelos homered off former Orioles pitcher Bruce Zimmermann. Dylan Beavers extended his on-base streak to 29 games and hitting streak to 14. Samuel Basallo singled at 115.9 mph off the bat. Cameron Weston allowed two runs in five innings.
High-A Aberdeen’s Blake Money tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings with six strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 2.33.