By Zachary McMahon-
The Baltimore Orioles hosted the Minnesota Twins for a doubleheader on Wednesday after the game on Tuesday got postponed due to rain at Camden Yards in Baltimore, MD. This is the season opener, and the Orioles are coming off a series victory against the Los Angeles Angels, after a win on Sunday. The Twins entered the doubleheader with an eight game winning streak.
Both teams sent a 27th man on the roster as is customary for a doubleheader as the Orioles recalled Chayce McDermott, and the Twins sent Kody Funderburk to the major leagues. The Orioles also activated Ramon Urias from the 10-day injured list and optioned Dylan Carlson to Triple-A Norfolk.
Game 1: Dean Kremer had started for the O’s, and he pitched 5 ⅔ innings, he allowed seven hits, four earned runs, two walks, and four strikeouts. Bailey Ober pitched 4 ⅔ innings, allowing two hits, three earned runs, three walks, and three strikeouts.
The Orioles scored three runs in the third inning, as Ryan Mountcastle hit an RBI double and Gunnar Henderson hit a two-run home run.
In the fourth, Brooks Lee led off with a solo home run, and then Carlos Correa hit an infield single, and Willi Castro had a seven-pitch walk, after the at-bat started with a 0-2 count. Royce Lewis struck out and Harrison Bader flew out to left field. Christian Vazquez then hit a three-run home run. The home run by Vazquez snapped a 43-game homerless streak, which fifth longest homerless streak of his career. This was also his first go-ahead homer since a walk-off solo homer on July 7, 2024 against Josh Hader.
After the third inning, the Orioles only registered two more hits, as Henderson singled in the seventh and Mountcastle hit an infield single in the ninth, as both men registered all four hits for the Orioles.
Meanwhile the Twins padded the lead in the ninth, Trevor Larnach hit a double, and then Tyler O’Neill was unable to pick up the ball in right field, resulting in Larnach going to third base and Byron Buxton scoring. Keegan Akin then threw a wild pitch which allowed Larnach to score to make it 6-3.
Jhoran Duran pitched the ninth for his eighth save of the season as he struck out Henderson, as the Twins won game 1, 6-3.
The Twins won despite having four errors on defense, which makes it the first victory for the Twins while committing four errors or more since Aug. 16, 2021 against the Cleveland Indians.
Ramon Laureano was ejected in the sixth inning after arguing with home plate umpire James Hoye after he called strike three, as he’s the first player to get ejected from the game this season for the Orioles. He was replaced by Heston Kjerstad out in left field, who walked in the eighth inning.
Tyler O’Neill walked and reached on errors, and in both times on base he stole second, as he’s had a multi-stolen base game for the third time this season and the first time since July 4, 2024 against the Miami Marlins with the Boston Red Sox.
Ryan O’Hearn went 0-for-5 as his 13-game on-base streak was snapped, which was the second longest streak of his career.
France left the game in the fifth inning with a left foot contusion and was replaced by Kody Clemens.
Game 2: Simeon Woods Richardson pitched four innings for the Twins, and he allowed eight hits for the third time in his career, as that ties his career high, and it’s also the second time this season. He also allowed six earned runs, which also ties a career high, where he allowed six earned runs in 3 ⅓ innings on July 29, 2024 against the New York Mets. He allowed two walks and four strikeouts.
McDermott made his second start ever as he went three innings, allowing four hits, four earned runs, three walks, and five strikeouts.
He allowed the Twins to load the bases in the first inning, as Buxton walked to lead off the game, Ryan Jeffers singled, and Castro loaded the bases with a walk. Bader responded with scoring Buxton on an infield single. Clemens struck out swinging to leave the bases loaded.
Larnach hit a two-run home run in the second inning, and Clemens scored Lee on an RBI single, but he was thrown out at second in the third inning.
The Orioles scored six runs in the third inning, as Cedric Mullins hit a grand slam and then Kjerstad followed with a back-to-back homer. It’s the fourth time that the Orioles had hit back-to-back homers this season. Mullins hit his fourth career grand slam, and the Orioles hit their second of the season. Mullins also eclipsed 300 career RBIs in the slam. He’s also the sixth Oriole to have 300+ RBIs and 100+ stolen bases while on the team.
Castro hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, and then Clemens hit a three-run go-ahead home run in the eighth, as the Twins got into a 8-6 lead. Clemens got his first career go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later and had matched a career high of four RBI.
Cole Sands got his first season save as he retired all three batters, as the Twins swept the doubleheader with the 8-6 victory of Game 2.
The Twins have won five straight wins against the Orioles, which is their longest since a 16-game winning streak between 2018 and 2021, and it’s the second 10+ game winning streak under manager Rocco Baldelli, as they had a 12-game winning streak last season. They are also the first team in MLB history to have back-to-back 10-game winning streaks while starting under .500.
Henderson had two hits in each game and extended his on-base streak to 19 games, which is the second longest on-base streak in the American League. Mountcastle singled and doubled, as he extended his hitting streak to nine games, which is his third longest career streak behind a 12 and 13 game streak. Mountcastle had hit multiple hits in four consecutive games for the third time in his career, as he had similar streaks in 2023 and 2021. Henderson has hit multiple times in three straight games for the fifth time in his career. Mountcastle now has a 16-game hitting streak against the Minnesota Twins dating back to May 4, 2022, and is tied for the most with Miguel Tejada for the longest by an Oriole against the Twins, and is the longest active streak by a player against the Twins.
Emmanuel Rivera hit two singles as he extended his on-base streak to nine games to start the season, as he’s had his third nine-game on-base streak in the last two season, as he had two in 2024 with the Miami Marlins. This is his longest on-base streak to start a season in his career.
Bader had left the game due to left groin tightness, as his infield single in the first extended his career long on-base streak to 16 games. He was replaced by Deshawn Kersey who moved from left field to center, Castro moved from second to left field, Clemens moved from first to second, Jonah Bride moved from third to first, and Lewis played third and took Bader’s spot in the batting lineup.
Larnach has hit safely in his last six games, and in 10 out of the last 11 games, and he’s had a extra-base hit in the last four games, this ties the longest hitting streak of his career, and is also the longest in a single season, as he had a six-game hitting streak from Sept. 22, 2024 to March 29, 2025.
The O’s will attempt to not get swept by the Twins on Thursday when Tomoyuki Sugano goes up against Chris Paddack at 12:35 pm first pitch.
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