Josh Bell went 2-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs, and the Minnesota Twins held on for a 9-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Monday night in Minneapolis.
Ryan Jeffers finished 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs for Minnesota, which won the opener of a three-game series. Austin Martin finished 4-for-5 with a double and an RBI.
Coby Mayo went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs to lead Baltimore at the plate.
Twins right-hander Dean Kremer (2-4) beat his former team, which dealt him to the Twins before the trade deadline. Kremer limited the Orioles to one run on one hit in seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
Orioles left-hander Trevor Rogers (7-8) allowed two runs on four hits in four innings. He walked two and fanned four.
The Twins opened the scoring in the bottom of the third. Martin belted a leadoff shot over the wall in left-center field for his third homer.
Baltimore pulled even at 1-all on an unusual play in the top of the fourth. Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday attempted a double steal with Tyler O’Neill at the plate. O’Neill struck out and Twins catcher Jeffers threw to second, but Holliday avoided the tag for a long enough time that Henderson was able to score.
Kaelen Culpepper put the Twins on top 2-1 with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Minnesota broke the game open with five runs in the seventh.
Jeffers started the high-scoring inning when he stepped to the plate with runners on second and third with nobody out, and he delivered a two-run single to left to make it 4-1. Two batters later, Bell had runners on first and second, and he ripped a three-run homer to center to make it 7-1.
The Orioles got two runs back in the top of the eighth to pull within 7-3. Mayo hit an RBI double to left, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand had an RBI groundout to third.
Jeffers added an RBI double to center in the eighth, and Royce Lewis followed with an RBI single to increase the Twins’ lead to 9-3.
Mayo ripped a two-run single in the ninth to finish the scoring.
