MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Rob Refsnyder homered and doubled twice, Jorge Polanco also homered and the Minnesota Twins beat Baltimore 7-4 Tuesday night, the Orioles’ eighth straight loss.
Mitch Garver and Alex Kirilloff each doubled twice as the Twins cranked out eight extra-base hits to win their third in a row.
“It’s certainly nice for it to start to come together a little bit,” Kirilloff said.
José Berríos (5-2) allowed one earned run on seven hits, striking out seven in 5 2/3 innings. Taylor Rogers came on to retire Cedric Mullins with two on and two out in the eighth, then got through the ninth for his third save.
“I’m pretty proud of this one,” Rogers said. “I did my best to just keep in the process. Get that left-hander out in the eighth and then worry about the ninth after that.”
Mullins and Maikel Franco each had two hits and DJ Stewart homered for the second night in a row for the Orioles.
Dean Kremer (0-5) gave up five runs on six hits with three walks over four innings. He also threw a pair of wild pitches that scored runs.
The Orioles took a 2-0 lead in the second with a pair of unearned runs. With one out and a runner on first, Ryan Mountcastle hit a chopper to the right of the mound. Berríos fielded it and made an off-balance but on-target throw to second that shortstop Andrelton Simmons dropped for an error.
A two-out walk loaded the bases, and Mullins followed with a two-run single.
The Twins countered with four runs in the bottom half. Polanco got it started with a leadoff homer, Refsnyder doubled home the tying run and after two walks filled the bases, Kremer threw a pair of wild pitches to score two more runs.
The Orioles cut the lead to 4-3 in the fourth when Stevie Wilkerson and Pedro Severino led off with back-to-back doubles, but Berríos retired the next three hitters to end the threat.
After a bit of a shaky start, Berríos retired eight of the final nine batters he faced, exiting with two outs in the sixth after throwing a season-high 106 pitches.
“I knew that I had many pitches early in the fourth, so when I came to the fifth, I tried to make my quality pitches and get hitters out quickly,” Berríos said. “We did. So then, we were able to go into the sixth inning.”
Refsnyder doubled and scored on Josh Donaldson’s sacrifice fly in the fourth, and Kiriloff’s RBI double in the sixth put Minnesota on top 6-3.
Stewart and Refsnyder hit solo homers in the eighth inning.
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