O's game blog: Looking to end the first half with a three-game sweep of the Twins

MINNEAPOLIS – The Orioles have won their past four games by a combined 29-7 score. And, after a 3-1 win in 10 innings Friday and a 6-2 win on Saturday afternoon, the Orioles can complete a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins this afternoon at Target Field.

The Orioles won the last two games of their series at New York by a 20-4 score and carried that momentum into Minnesota. They are 53-35 for the season and have the American League’s best road record at 27-17. A win today would give them a 5-2 road trip and 54 wins heading into the All-Star break.

The Orioles have three sweeps of three games this season:

* At Detroit April 21-23
* At Toronto May 19-21
* Versus Kansas City June 9-11

Saturday’s win for Baltimore was marked by a six-run top of the second inning. It was a strange game in that the Orioles scored six runs on six hits in that inning, but had no runs and no hits in any other inning yesterday. They went 0-for-24 at-bat outside of the second inning versus Twins pitching.

Through the second inning yesterday, the Orioles had produced three innings of five runs or more in their last 19 innings dating to Thursday. Then they had a seven-run third inning and five-run fourth at Yankee Stadium.

In scoring 29 runs during the four wins in a row, the Orioles have come up big with runners in scoring position. They are 6-for-11 with RISP this series and 18-for-42 over the four games.

The Orioles have scored 10 runs in the previous five games before this four-game win streak and their 29 runs scored.

Meanwhile, O’s pitching has allowed just seven runs during the win streak. In this series, O’s pitchers have given up three runs over 19 innings while the Baltimore bullpen has allowed just one earned run in 11 2/3 the past four games.

The O’s rotation has a quality start for four straight games with an ERA of 1.42 in that span. And they have a rotation ERA of 2.23 the past eight games with six quality starts.

Right-hander Kyle Gibson (8-6, 4.93 ERA) makes his 19th start today and the Orioles are 9-9 in the previous 18. Gibson gave up four runs in six innings Tuesday at New York. Over his past three starts his ERA is 9.88, allowing 15 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings. He has allowed a .339 batting average and .904 OPS in that span.

Gibson had allowed four runs or more in four of his first 15 starts this season, but has now done that in three of his last three games. 

A first-round draft pick of Minnesota (No. 22 overall) in the 2009 draft, Gibson pitched for the Twins from 2013-2019. Over those seven seasons, he went 67-68 with an ERA of 4.52 in 1,087 innings.

Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (8-5, 3.42) makes his 18th start for Minnesota. Ryan, 27, has allowed six runs twice in his past four games, with an ERA of 5.04 in that span. It is not higher because this stretch also includes him throwing a complete-game three-hitter June 22 against Boston.

The Twins are 10-7 in Ryan's starts and he is 5-2 with a 2.73 ERA in eight home starts.