Twins roll over Orioles again

For the 11th straight time the Twins were winners over Baltimore, the final Saturday from Target Field 9-2.  Minnesota hit five more homeruns today including two by Max Kepler

TWINS NOTES:

1. THE TWINS improved to 5-3-1 in series play this afternoon…today marked their fourth straight series win over Baltimore…they have now won 11 straight over Baltimore, tied for their fifth longest over any opponent in Twins history (Boston – 17 in ’65-66, Detroit – 16 in ’02-’03, Tampa Bay -14 in ’04-’06, Detroit – 12 in ’88-’89, and Tampa Bay -11 in ’02-’03).

2. THE TWINS hit five home runs today, giving them 21 in five games vs. Baltimore this season…their most in a season vs. Baltimore is 22, coming in 1962 and ’64…since last Saturday, the Twins have scored 55 total runs, 37 of which have been scored via homers (25 total homers)…Jason Castro and Max Kepler hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning, the fifth time for Twins players to homer consecutively.

3. JOSE BERRIOS earned his fourth win of the season today and 21st of his career at Target Field, second most in the park’s history (Kyle Gibson – 24)…Berrios improved to 3-0, 3.54 ERA (20.1 IP, 8 ER) in three home starts this season and 4-1, 1.62 ERA (33.1 IP, 6 ER) in his last five home starts, dating back to September of 2018…with eight strikeouts today, he now has 41 on the season; entering today just five AL pitchers had 40 (Cole – 54, Paxton – 51, Verlander – 46, Bauer – 45 and Rodon – 40).

4. WILLIANS ASTUDILLO has hit safely in six of his last seven games, hitting .444 (8-for-18) with one double, one home run and three RBI in those seven…he made his second start of the season in rightfield today…he left the game in the third inning with left hamstring tightness tagging up from third on a Max Kepler sac fly.

5. NELSON CRUZ is hitting .455 (10-for-22) with two doubles, four home runs and six RBI in five games vs. the Orioles this season…in 69 career games vs. Baltimore, he is hitting .362 (94-for-260) with 21 doubles, 17 home runs and 58 RBI.

6. C.J. CRON hit the go-ahead home run in the sixth inning to give the Twins the 3-2 lead…it marked his second homer this season to give the Twins the lead; he had 14 go-ahead homers last season for Tampa Bay…he now has 13 RBI in his last 12 games, since April 14…the home run exit velocity registered at 113.4 mph, tied for third hardest hit ball for the Twins this season (Cron also had 113.6 vs. Detroit off Jordan Zimmermann).

7. JASTON CASTRO drew his eighth walk of the season today, he now has seven of those walks in his last seven games; he has six hits on the season…he has a .214 batting average compared to a .389 on-base percentage.

8. MAX KEPLER hit his sixth career home run off a left-handed pitcher today (Tanner Scott), his first extra-base hit off a lefty since doubling on August 22, 2018 at Chicago-AL, off Xavier Cedeno…it was his first homer off a lefty since June 20, 2018 vs. Boston, off David Price (span of 106 games between)…Kepler recorded his fifth career multi-homer game and first since April 11, 2018 vs. Houston.

9. MARWIN GONZALEZ snapped a 0-for-last-19 with an eighth inning home run…his previous hit was a fifth inning single in Game 2 of the doubleheader April 20 at Baltimore.