It wasn’t the AL East Crown but rather the #1 Wild Card seed (#4 seed overall) that the Baltimore Orioles secured on Friday night in Minnesota. The Orioles defeated the Minnesota Twins 7-2, assuring that there will be Playoff baseball in Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Oct. 1, 2 and 3 if necessary). Concurrently, any hope the Twins had for making the Playoffs disappeared in the Minneapolis night.
Homeruns by Ryan O’Hearn (1 for 3, HR, R 2 RBI) in the second inning and Colton Cowser (1 for 5, HR, R, RBI) in the seventh staked the Orioles to a 3-0 lead.
A four-run eighth inning broke the game open and essentially put it out of reach for the Twins. The inning opened with four straight singles, scoring one run. A sac. fly and fielder’s choice groundout plated two more runs while an Anthony Santander (2 for 4, RBI, BB) RBI-single plated the inning’s fourth run.
Cade Povich (3-9) performed well and was credited with the win. The former Minnesota farmhand limited his former organization to 2 hits while walking 1, striking out 2 and throwing a wild pitch over 5.2 innings. He threw 79 pitches (57 strikes) in the winning effort.
Jacob Webb (1.1 IP, 2 K) and Danny Coulombe (1.0 IP, BB) kept the Twins off the board through 8 innings.
The Twins scored their two runs off of Seranthony Dominguez (1.0 IP, 2 R, 2 H, BB) in the ninth.
Ryan Mountcastle went 3 for 5 with a double and a run scored.
Adley Rutschman went 2 for 5 with a run scored.
Cedric Mullins went 1 for 3 with a run scored and a walk while Ramon Urias went 1 for 4 with a run scored and 1 RBI.
2024 Record: 89-71
Next Game: Sat. 9/28 vs. Minnesota Twins @ 7:05 pm in Minneapolis
