Minnesota Twins lose to Baltimore Orioles 1-2 at Target Field – MLB Update
Minnesota Twins lost to Baltimore Orioles 1-2 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Wednesday, July 18 in third game of their four match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Twins had the better of their opponents in the first two games of the series. Using their home conditions superbly, Ron Gardenhire and company humiliated the Orioles 19-7 in series opener. Minnesota put up another solid show in Game 2 to edge the Orioles
6-4 and take an impassable 2-0 series lead.
Manager Gardenhire was expecting his team to maintain their excellent form on Wednesday but that did not turn out to be the case as the Orioles held them off to keep the series alive. Credit should be given to Orioles’ starting pitcher Tommy Hunter who displayed
some top quality throwing skills against a powerful batting line-up.
"It was an off-speed pitch, and I was waiting for it and put a good bat on the ball and it somehow found his glove," Ben Revere said about a pitch he faced. "It's the way baseball goes."
Hunter got the rewards as he pitched seven plus effective innings for his fourth win of the season. Overall, the right hander gave up six hits and a run to lift the Orioles to a much needed victory. Relief pitcher Jim Johnson gave up a hit in one inning
for his 27th save of the season.
"Hopefully we've got to the top of the hill and we're on that downward slope. It's got to get better at some point," Hunter said in a post game interview.
Twins’ starter Francisco Liriano was unlucky to end up on the losing side. He allowed only four hits and two runs in six solid innings. However, despite striking-out a season high ten batters, he was unable to reap the rewards.
After Baltimore had taken an early 2-0 lead, Josh Willingham hit a solo home-run to left-centre in the fourth to keep the Twins in the game. However, apart from him none of Minnesota’s hitters could cope with the intense pitches from Hunter.
The Twins will be disappointed with their performance as they were unable to get their offence going. Baltimore will be looking to build up some confidence at this crucial stage of the regular season and carry some winning momentum forward.
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