Twins can't complete sweep of Orioles as Jhoan Duran falters in eighth inning

Over the past three seasons, no major league team has won more 1-0 games than the Twins, which means they are good at maximizing scarce resources. But it hardly seems like a blueprint for success.

The Twins learned that the hard way Sunday, when one messy inning cost them a sweep of the Orioles. Jhoan Duran, summoned to preserve what the Twins hoped would be their second consecutive 1-0 victory, instead surrendered three hits and forced in the go-ahead run by hitting a batter, allowing Baltimore to walk away with a 2-1 victory at Camden Yards.

The loss wrapped up a series in which the Twins gave up a mere three runs in three games, yet won only two of them. The reason? After scoring eight runs in the first four innings Friday, they managed only two runs over the next 23 innings.

"Our pitchers were a huge part of what went on here," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told the Associated Press in Baltimore. "We barely gave up any runs the whole series. The eighth inning is really the only blemish I see in the entire series."

True enough, but that one was enough to drop the Twins below .500 on the season — they're 42-43 — and on their nine-game road trip, where they went 4-5. They have also lost the final game of six of their seven road trips.

The reason for this loss was the same as so many this year: lack of hitting. And this despite their public vows to improve their offensive production.

The Twins managed six hits off lefthander Cole Irvin and three relievers, but went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position after going 0-for-4 on Saturday. The exception Sunday was Willi Castro's two-out double off Irvin in the fifth inning, a hit that drove in Byron Buxton from second base.

"We hit a lot of balls pretty well," Baldelli said. "If we hit the ball like that, we're going to score more than one run off the starting pitcher."

The shame of this one was that Sonny Gray, shortly after being informed he has been selected to his third All-Star Game, was brilliant for six shutout innings, giving up only two hits. One was a harmless two-out single by former Sauk Rapids-Rice athlete Anthony Bemboom, the Orioles catcher, the other a leadoff double to Ramón Urías in the fifth inning.

That one got Gray into trouble, since he walked Jorge Mateo and hit Gunnar Henderson to load the bases with two outs. But Gray needed one pitch to get out of trouble, inducing Adley Rutschman to fly out.

Gray held the Orioles to 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position — they were 0-for-9 in the three-game series until their final turn at bat — and Griffin Jax easily extended his shutout streak to 17 consecutive appearances with three quick outs in the seventh.

But for the fourth time since May 1, Gray left his start with a lead, only to watch it melt away with him in the dugout. In fact, though Gray has yet to give up more than three runs in a start this season, and owns a 2.50 ERA that ranks as the fourth-best in the major leagues, the Twins are somehow only 8-9 in his starts — and 3-8 since May 1.

With Brock Stewart and Jorge López on the injured list, Baldelli sent Duran out to face the top of Baltimore's order in the eighth, and he quickly struck out Henderson. But an infield hit by Rutschman and a single up the middle by Anthony Santander on the ninth pitch of his at-bat turned things dangerous for the Twins.

Sure enough, former Twins outfielder Aaron Hicks, now 2-for-2 in his career against Duran, tied the score with a single to center. After an out, Duran fell behind pinch hitter Ryan O'Hearn 3-0 and chose an intentional walk to load the bases.

Duran's second pitch to Jordan Westburg, and 34th of the inning, was a 101-mph fastball that struck the rookie second baseman on his left hand, forcing in Santander with the go-ahead run.