Minnesota Twins open homestand hot, defeat Baltimore Orioles with big days from Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton

Maybe Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton just really missed Royce Lewis.

They provided quite a welcome back Tuesday.

Correa bashed the longest home run by any Twins hitter this season in the third inning at Target Field, and Buxton capped a party atmosphere with his team-leading eighth blast in the seventh. The pair combined to drive in seven runs to steer Minnesota to a 9-1 victory over the Orioles.

“Fun. Fun. It’s what I live for,” Correa said of his first home run since April 19. “You have some bad games and then you go back to work the next day, trying to figure it out; that’s what drives me as a baseball player. Every day, you get to give your team a chance to win the game, and it just feels better when the results are coming. I just want it to keep going.”

That home run might still be going. Correa’s two-run, upper-deck blast in the third inning, shortly after Buxton‘s RBI double, traveled an estimated 458 feet, the fifth-longest home run of his career.

And Buxton‘s bullet four rows deep in left field in the seventh, bringing in three runs, came a couple of minutes before Correa’s shindig-capping, run-scoring single.

“We feel like we’re getting stronger and we’re getting back to a place where we put a lot of our regulars on the field on a daily basis,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The guys that stepped in and did some good work for us, they’re still gonna be there and still gonna get called upon, but being able to add our guys back into the lineup, it does a lot.”

It did plenty Tuesday, a victory both streak-extending — the Twins’ third straight win and fourth in a row on their home field — and more importantly, streak-breaking. The Twins had lost 10 consecutive games to Baltimore and had failed to score five runs against the Orioles in 11 straight.

BOXSCORE: Twins 9, Orioles 1

MLB standings

And here’s perhaps the most amazing part: The offensive outburst might not even have been the most impressive part of their effort. Twins pitchers struck out a season-high 17 batters, including 11 by starter Pablo López — who pitched only five innings.

“The way Pablo was getting swing-and-miss today, you knew it was good,” Baldelli said of Lopez, who recorded 18 misses, 11 on his fastball alone. “He had some really interesting movement today on his changeup; it seemed like it was moving even more so than in other outings. It even looked like it was a curveball from the side, the way it was dropping.”

The effectiveness of his fastball meant a lot to López.

“The fastball is traditionally the pitch we’re supposed to use the most. It’s just the pitch we should be able to command, control. It’s actually working to put people away,” López said after tying Joe Ryan’s record for most strikeouts in five innings or fewer. “It’s fun when you know it’s more than a setup pitch on specific nights. It’s just to get people out.”

Speaking of getting people out: Lewis, making his 2025 debut after six weeks on the injured list, flew out twice, grounded into a double play and reached base on the first of Orioles third baseman Coby Mayo’s two errors. But his presence figures to eventually pay off, especially against lefthanded pitching.

It may have been a bit of a disappointment for Twins fans, given that Lewis’ previous returns after long injury layoffs have included a grand slam, a two-homer game and at least one hit in all five games. Until now.

Still, Correa said Lewis’ presence, and Willi Castro’s, will make a difference.

“Having him in the lineup, having all of us in the lineup, it’s really a gift,” Correa said. “It feels like our team is complete when Royce is in the lineup, and Willi. I feel really good about where our team stands right now.”

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Strangely, given their recent domination of the Twins, it’s the last-place Orioles who own the worse record (now 13-21 to Minnesota’s 16-20), and they looked the part in the teams’ first meeting of 2025. Not only did López strike out the side in three different innings — only four outs came on balls in play — but Baltimore registered only three hits all night.

One of them, a fourth-inning double by Ryan Mountcastle, scored Gunnar Henderson, who had walked, with Baltimore’s only run. But no other Oriole ever reached third base, and López simply struck out Jackson Holliday to end their lone mild threat.

The Twins, meanwhile, put together a five-run inning to beat lefthander Cade Povich, their third straight victory against a lefthanded starter, and a four-run frame against relievers Lionel Pérez and Matt Bowman.