BALTIMORE — Welcome to Camden Yards, where the Twins haven't won since 2015 and the Orioles own the best home record in baseball. This is a one-city road trip, but one is plenty when the challenge is this big.
Baltimore is 15-4 in its beautiful, scenic ballpark, and had an eight-game home winning streak broken up on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Twins are off to one of their best road starts in years, going 11-5 and having won six of their last seven.
"We've had a good start to our road season. It's not something I try to overthink," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "But it doesn't come easy, and you don't get too comfortable. And now we come into a place where your opponent plays really well at home."
Kyle Gibson, sporting a freshly shaved buzz cut, met the team when it arrived here late last night. He's been recalled from Class AAA Rochester, where he allowed four runs in 12 1/3 innings and struck out 18.
"Kyle had an impressive spring for us. Strike throwing and aggressiveness — we saw it in spades in spring training, but it disappeared early on at the start of the year," Molitor said. "But he's making a conscious effort to get back to that approach. His starts in Rochester spoke to that. Now he's got to figure out how to carry it over and get big league hitters out."
Gibson is making his first major-league start since May 4, and knows there's an opportunity here to recapture the rotation spot he lost with an 8.20 ERA in his first six starts.
That's because Phil Hughes was officially put on the disabled list today. The official reason was inflammation in his right biceps, which is good news for the Twins, who feared a more serious shoulder problem. Hughes will be out at least 10 days and perhaps a little longer, but it doesn't sound like a longterm problem.
Rain was in the forecast, and the possibility of a shower exists, but that shouldn't amount to more than a delay.
