BALTIMORE – Extra innings, the Twins' best friend.
The Twins won their second consecutive 10-inning game on Monday, and if that doesn't sound like much of a streak, it sure does to a team that lost its first seven.
Rob Refsnyder scrambled home when an Adam Plutko pitch bounced away from catcher Austin Wynns, and Jorge Polanco followed with a solo home run, and Minnesota beat the Orioles, 3-2 at Camden Yards.
Hansel Robles allowed the first batter he faced in the 10th, DJ Stewart, to double home a run, and a one-out walk to Stevie Wilkerson made for a tense ending. But Robles struck out Wynns and retired Freddy Galvis on a pop fly to end the game and record his fourth save of the season.
It was Baltimore's 14th straight loss, and 16th in a row over the past four seasons, to the Twins, the second-longest domination of one opponent in Minnesota team history. Only the 17 straight wins that the Twins recorded over Boston in 1965 and 1966 was a longer streak, and the Twins can match that record Tuesday night.
The only weird part was that Jose Berrios didn't get the win. Berrios, 6-0 in his career against the Orioles, pitched eight brilliant innings, allowing only one Baltimore baserunner, first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, to touch third base. Trouble is, Mountcastle did it during his fifth-inning home run trot, and the Twins couldn't overcome that meager offensive output while the righthander was in the game.
The Orioles came in on a remarkable streak of ineptness at the plate, going 0-for-24 with runners in scoring position while getting swept in Chicago over the weekend. Berrios managed to extend that streak by keeping Baltimore hitless in its four at-bats with an Oriole on second.
The Twins, though, were no better at driving in runs. Three times they put a runner on second base with zero or one out in an inning, and only once, when Jorge Polanco hit into a ground-ball forceout, could they bring home a run. They went 1-for-7 with runners on second or third, the lone hit a tapper to the pitcher.
