Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa injured in collision as Twins blank Orioles for 11th consecutive win

BALTIMORE – Chris Paddack pitched seven scoreless innings and the Twins swept the Baltimore Orioles with a 4-0 victory Thursday, but the health status of Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa overshadowed the team’s 11th consecutive win.

Buxton and Correa left the game after colliding on a fly ball in shallow center field in the third inning. Buxton secured the catch before he crashed into the back of Correa. Buxton’s head appeared to hit Correa’s left shoulder and the back of Correa’s head.

The two players entered Major League Baseball’s concussion protocol after they were removed and were unavailable to speak to reporters. Correa gingerly walked off the field after the collision, and Buxton finished the half-inning in center field before he was removed.

Players diagnosed with a concussion are placed on the 7-day concussion injured list, but Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler said they will be re-evaluated Friday.

“I want them to be safe in general, let alone playing with them as teammates,” Royce Lewis said. “It’s the heart and soul of your team going down. It’s not ideal, obviously. We’re hoping for the best for them. It seems like they’re walking around OK. Hopefully, they’re all right.”

Despite losing two key players — Buxton homered in the top of the third inning for a 3-0 lead — the Twins completed a season series sweep against the reeling Orioles, a team they beat six times during their 11-game winning streak.

The Twins, who had a 12-game winning streak last year, have recorded only three winning streaks longer than 11 games in team history.

“We just regrouped as a team,” Lewis said. “Rocco [Baldelli] came in with Jayce and started saying, ‘Just keep playing. They’d do the same thing if you guys got hurt.’ That’s what we did.”

Paddack, for the second straight start, was magnificent. He permitted three hits and one walk, throwing a first-pitch strike to 19 of his 23 batters. The Twins needed a strong start from him after the bullpen picked up 9⅓ innings during Wednesday’s doubleheader, and he delivered.

There was some defensive musical chairs. Five Twins players played at least two positions. Kody Clemens started at first base, moved to second base after Correa exited in the third inning, shifted to right field in the fourth once Buxton didn’t return and he went back to second base for the ninth.

Ryan Mountcastle hit a one-out double off the right-field wall in the fourth inning, and the ball was misplayed by Clemens. As Mountcastle attempted to stretch a double into a triple, Clemens tossed him out at third. After the out, the son of seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens flexed toward his teammates in the outfield.

“I made a joke with Kody, they must not know who your dad is — ‘the Rocket’ — testing your arm,” Paddack said. “That was a huge momentum change for me personally.”

After the first two Orioles batters reached base in the fifth inning via a hit batsman and a single, Paddack didn’t flinch. He struck out the next two batters and induced an inning-ending groundout to Ty France, who came out of a game Wednesday with a foot injury.

Paddack, who owns a 2.06 ERA over his last seven starts, retired his final nine batters with only one ball leaving the infield.

“He’s been unbelievable,” DaShawn Keirsey Jr. said. “You can really tell how passionate he is out there on the mound and how much it means to him.”

The Twins scored three runs on consecutive pitches in the top of the third inning. Keirsey pulled a full-count sweeper over the right field wall for a two-run homer, the second home run of his career.

Keirsey watched an Instagram video this week, a podcast clip that featured Orioles designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn, discussing how shrinking his strike zone in 3-2 counts had a big effect on cutting his strikeout rate.

“It’s funny, I thought about it in that moment,” Keirsey said. “Thanks to him.”

As Keirsey celebrated in the dugout, Buxton hammered the next pitch from Orioles starter Tomoyuki Sugano to the bullpens beyond the fence in left-center field. It was the Twins’ first set of back-to-back homers since July 26, 2024.

The Twins added a run in the seventh inning after an injury scare from Willi Castro, who stayed on the ground for a few moments after a headfirst slide on a double.

“We were worried it was a leg, a knee, an ankle,” Tingler said. “We were panicking a little bit.”

Castro, fortunately, just had the wind knocked out of him. He stayed in, and Lewis hit the next pitch from Sugano through the left side of the infield for an RBI single.

“We just went to battle today,” Paddack said, “and there were a lot of people that stepped up.”