Anthony Santander hit two of Baltimore’s season-high six home runs and Kyle Gibson picked up his ninth victory of the season as the Orioles cruised to their fifth consecutive win, 15-2, over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Adley Rutschman, Aaron Hicks, Austin Hays and Ramon Urias also homered for Baltimore, which enters the All-Star break in second place in the American League East, two games behind Tampa Bay. Hicks and Urias both finished with three RBIs and seven players had two hits for the Orioles, who finished with 17 hits.
Gibson (9-6) allowed two runs on three hits over seven innings and retired 17 batters in a row during one stretch. He walked one and tied his career high with 11 strikeouts.
Edouard Julien homered, doubled and drove in two runs for Minnesota, which enters the All-Star break in second place in the A.L. Central, just a one-half game behind Cleveland despite a sub-.500 record (45-46).
Twins starter Joe Ryan (8-6) suffered the loss, allowing five runs over 4 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out 10.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Carlos Correa led off with a walk and then scored on Julien’s double that rolled to the wall in right-center.
Baltimore tied it 1-1 in the second when Hays led off with his ninth homer, a 434-foot blast into the second deck in left-center.
The Orioles took an 8-1 lead in the fifth with a seven-run inning that featured a two-run homer by Urias and a three-run shot by Hicks.
Baltimore then broke the game open with a six-run sixth that featured a two-run home run by Rutschman — a 461-foot drive deep into the second deck in right-center — followed by a solo shot by Santander. The Orioles almost had a third homer in the inning when Cedric Mullins doubled high off the wall in right-center to drive in Colton Cowser, who had walked.
Julien homered into the bullpen in left-center to cut it to 14-2 in the bottom of the sixth, but Santander answered with his second home run of the game and 16th of the season when he led off the seventh and ended the scoring.
–Field Level Media