Twins are charmed in Charm City

BALTIMORE — Camden Yards opened in 1992, and it seems like the Twins have been doomed here for most of its existence.

In recent years, there was Mike Mussina's one-hitter in 2000; the eight-inning, three-hit masterpiece by Daniel Cabrera in 2005 that felt like a no-hitter; and the 4-21 run here the Twins suffered through from 1997-2002.

You could have been Cal Ripken Jr. or Luis Matos. If you played for the Orioles, you likely were going to send the Twins reeling.

This weekend is proof that anything can come full circle. The Twins hammered Baltimore 11-3 Sunday to sweep a four-game series vs. the Orioles for the first time ever. The Twins won the season series 7-0 and are 13-3 against them over the past two seasons.

"That doesn't happen very often," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of the sweep. "So let's get out of town before they get mad."

Their five-game winning streak ties their season high and sends them into a series at Cleveland as confident as they've been all year as they try to eat into a 5½-game deficit in the AL Central.

"The last two months, this is the best we've played," said Twins center fielder Torii Hunter, who was 2-for-5 with two RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base. "We have been hitting the ball well and executing. You have to be happy with what we've been doing the last five or six days."

The Twins' confidence is soaring after their offense, dormant for most of the season, has come to life. They scored 31 runs in the series, batting .306. They hit .385 with runners in scoring position.

Hunter extended his hitting streak to 13 games, Jason Tyner ran his to nine and Jason Bartlett reached six.

The Twins even had five sacrifice flies during the series, including three Sunday.

"As a team, when you get on a little bit of a roll, guys start feeling good about the way things are going," Gardenhire said. "The confidence level rises, then you have better at-bats and you have confidence walking to the plate and everyone wants to be a part of it.

"That's the confidence factor in the dugout right now."

Baltimore is not the caliber of team the Twins will face this week in Cleveland. However, the Twins punctuated the series by beating Baltimore ace lefthander Erik Bedard (13-5), who had won his past nine decisions.

The Twins accumulated good at-bats off Bedard, forcing him to throw 116 pitches over six innings, giving up six runs on six hits and five walks. He did strike out three, raising his AL-leading total to 221, an Orioles single-season record.

"They didn't chase the curveball," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said of the Twins. "They showed a lot of patience when they got two strikes."

Twins righthander Scott Baker — back from Louisiana after his son, Easton, was born Friday — wasn't sharp but used the run support to improve to 7-6.

The Twins then left for Cleveland, with a chance to prove against the first-place Indians that they will be a factor in the division race.

"If we can go in there and keep playing like this and come out on top, it's going to be big," Bartlett said, "and it's going to help us out going into the last month."

La Velle E. Neal III • lneal@startribune.com