Minnesota Twins stay clear of Baltimore Orioles after Byron Buxton’s three-run homer

The Twins matched their season-high winning streak Wednesday night, and Byron Buxton matched his career-high home run streak.

These occurrences are not unrelated.

Buxton cracked a Charlie Morton curveball into the upper deck down the left-field line with two runners on base in the third inning, the third consecutive game he has reached the seats, and provided all the offense the Twins would need for a 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Target Field.

It’s the second time in 11 days that the Twins have won four straight games, and Buxton is the thread running through those hot streaks. The center fielder has played in seven of the eight wins, had at least one hit in all seven, and he has homered in four.

“Most of the time when that happens, it comes in bunches,” Buxton said. “So I’m just riding the wave a little bit.”

Wednesday’s blast gave Buxton a home run in three consecutive games, the fourth time he has managed such a streak in his career, matching a pair of streaks in 2022 and one in 2020. The Twins’ record for consecutive games with a home run is five, done three times by Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and once each by Marty Cordova, Brian Dozier and Nelson Cruz.

“Buck’s just enjoying feeling great, playing every day with his teammates out there. That’s very natural, and we’re seeing him doing the job that he loves to do,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “When he hits the ball at that good angle, which we’ve seen a bunch, the balls keep going. They’re not scraping walls or anything like that. We’re winning games because of him.”

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Harrison Bader also homered for the Twins, driving a slider from Keegan Akin 408 feet into the upper-deck section adjacent to Buxton’s. That seventh-inning blast had significance for Bader, too: It was the first pinch-hit home run of his career.

And just like Tuesday’s game, the Twins received plenty of strong pitching, especially when the Orioles threatened, to back up their reviving offense.

Simeon Woods Richardson allowed two runs over 4⅔ innings, including a solo homer by Ramón Laureano in the third inning. After retiring the first two hitters of the fifth inning, Woods Richardson had given up only two hits and had recorded 14 outs on just 50 pitches. But his next 11 pitches ended his outing: Laureano doubled, Heston Kjerstad singled him home, and Emmanuel Rivera singled as well, putting the tying and go-ahead runs on base.

Danny Coulombe relieved Woods Richardson and struck out Cedric Mullins with a 2-2 cutter, ending the threat.

Louie Varland ended a two-on, two-out threat in the sixth by making a sliding grab of Jackson Holliday’s dribbler up the first base line and quickly flipping it to Ty France to end the inning.

The sort of play, apparently, that the Incredible Hulk would make, given Varland’s comic-inspired “Hulk Smash” intro video.

“It wasn’t graceful. I’m glad I made the play because if I didn’t, I’d look like an idiot. It all worked out, I guess,” said Varland, agreeing “100 percent, by far” that it was his best defensive play in the major leagues. It ended with “a little pass. A little push-pass” to get the out.

BOXSCORE: Twins 5, Baltimore 2

MLB standings

And in the eighth, Griffin Jax put two runners on base but then deflected a grounder by Ryan Mountcastle behind his back to second baseman Willi Castro, who turned it into an inning-ending double play, leaving the Orioles 1-for-4 on the night with runners in scoring position. Jhoan Duran allowed a couple of long foul balls in the ninth but struck out all three hitters he faced to earn his fifth save in five opportunities this year.

The victory improved the Twins’ record to 17-20 while dropping Baltimore, loser of four straight games, to 13-22.

“Over the last week or so, we’ve had some pretty decent weather and we’ve been putting together a lot of hits,” said Buxton, whose nine home runs lead the Twins by five over Bader and Trevor Larnach. “It’s just one of those where you get somebody on to get the energy going, and everything else takes care of itself.”