BALTIMORE _ One day after the Twins and Orioles combined for the most home runs in one day in major-league history, they combined for the fewest ever on Sunday.
So the Twins made a couple of doubles work just as well.
Willians Astudillo doubled home a run, and Byron Buxton extended his major-league lead in doubles to produce another run, and the Twins completed a three-wins-in-24-hours sweep of the Orioles with a 4-3 victory at Camden Yards.
The victory, the Twins' eighth in their last nine games in Baltimore, insured that the Twins will remain atop the AL Central for at least another day, but the game could not have been more different than the pair of wins that put them there a day earlier. Minnesota and Baltimore walloped a combined 17 home runs during Saturday's doubleheader, the most ever on a single day in baseball history, but didn't even come close to knocking a ball out of the park on Sunday.
In place of the fireworks came speed and pitching. Jorge Polanco raced to third base after hitting a shallow fly ball that left fielder Dwight Smith Jr. lost in the sun and allowed to drop for a three-base error. That allowed Polanco to score easily on Astudillo's double into the left field corner, and C.J. Cron soon singled him home, too. Jake Cave singled him Nelson Cruz in the third inning to extend the lead.
Buxton, who surged to the MLB lead in doubles with four in this series, led off the fourth inning with a screamer that short-hopped the left field wall, his 12th of the season. Any other player would likely have spent the rest of the inning there, because Polanco followed with a 301-foot routine fly ball to right field, and Astudillo hit a 262-foot pop fly into shallow center field. But Buxton tagged and moved up on both outs, scoring a run that would turn critical a few innings later.
Kyle Gibson pitched six relatively harmless innings, his most effective start of the season, and gave up just two runs. They came in the third inning, when after a couple of hits and a wild pitch, Smith redeemed himself for his costly error by delivering a two-out, two-run single.
Trevor May threw a scoreless seventh, but allowed two straight singles to lead off the eighth inning, and manager Rocco Baldelli went to Trevor Hildenberger for another tense escape. The sidearmer struck out Trey Mancini on a changeup, and got Cedric Mullins to ground back to first base. After loading the bases by walking cleanup hitter Renato Nunez, Hildenberger got ahead of left-handed hitter Rio Ruiz 0-2 and fooled him with a low changeup, which Ruiz check-swinged back to Hildenberger to end the inning.
The Orioles made the game tense again in the ninth, with Jonathan Villar doubling home a run and moving Jesus Sucre to third base with two outs. But after intentionally walking Mancini, Taylor Rogers fell behind Pedro Severino 3-0 before forcing him to fly out to right field, earning his third save of the season.
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