Ron Gardenhire opened his pregame press conference Sunday with a complaint -- why are the Wild playing a day game? Yes, Minnesota's baseball manager has a little playoff fever for its hockey team, but hasn't been able to watch much of the postseason.

"I'm going to call and ask them to change things around," he joked.

One thing he doesn't want to change: The Twins' two-game streak of solid starting pitching, which has eased the burden on the bullpen and made the games more competitive.

"We're in a stretch where we're playing quite a few games in a row, so we need our starters to go" deep into games, he said.

Phil Hughes has that responsibility today, and he's been up to it lately; he's allowed four earned runs in his last two starts, posting a 2.77 ERA.

"Hopefully he keeps building on that," Gardenhire said. "It'd be nice to see our starters get on a roll. It sure makes the game a lot easier."

Here are the lineups for today's series finale:

ORIOLES

Markakis RF

Machado 3B

Cruz LF

Jones CF

Weiters C

Hardy SS

Young DH

Pearce 1B

Schoop 2B

Gonzalez RHP

TWINS

Dozier 2B

Mauer 1B

Plouffe DH

Colabello RF

Kubel LF

Suzuki C

Fuld CF

Escobar 3B

Florimon SS

Hughes RHP