O's game blog: Orioles road trip begins at Target Field

MINNEAPOLIS - The Orioles begin a two-city, six-game road trip tonight at Target Field against the Minnesota Twins. The trip moves to Chicago on Monday for a three-game series against the White Sox.

The Orioles are 10-16 overall and 7-6 on the road, winning series at New York against the Yankees and in Toronto. While O's pitchers have allowed 41 homers in 13 home games with a home ERA of 7.38, they have given up many fewer homers away from Camden Yards. They have allowed 18 in 13 road games with a 4.62 ERA.

Last weekend at Camden Yards, Minnesota completed its first three-game sweep in Baltimore since May 22-24, 2017. The Orioles have lost nine straight games to the Twins and are 3-14 versus Minnesota since the start of 2017. The Twins' nine-game winning streak is their longest active streak versus any opponent and tied for the longest winning streak against the Orioles in Twins history. It was done the first time from Sept. 23, 2006 to Aug. 26, 2007.

The Orioles won the last two games of their series with the White Sox by 9-1 and 4-3 scores. They have their first two-game win streak since their 4-1 start and won their first series at home since Aug. 27-29, 2018. Wednesday's win was just the second this year by the Orioles when scoring four runs or less and they are now 2-13 when they do.

In its sweep last weekend at the Yard, Minnesota bashed 11 homers in a doubleheader sweep on Saturday, including eight in their 16-7 Game 2 win. The eight homers is the second-most an O's staff ever allowed in a single game behind only the 10-homer game by the Blue Jays against Baltimore on Sept. 4, 1987 in Toronto.

In that series, the Twins scored 26 runs on 37 hits with 11 home runs. They had a pair of one-run wins on either side of that nine-run win. When the Orioles played at Target Field last July, they got swept in a four-game series by a 26-9 score. It was the first time the O's ever were swept four in a row at Minnesota.

The Twins went 1-2 after leaving Baltimore. They took the series opener at Houston, but lost Tuesday and Wednesday by 10-4 and 7-1 scores, respectively. Minnesota is 13-9 overall and 5-4 at home. The Twins are 6-2 in series openers and the Orioles are 2-6.

The Orioles' Trey Mancini is batting .379 (11-for-29) during a seven-game hitting streak. Mancini is 11-for-21 (.524) with two homers when batting in the first inning.

Dwight Smith Jr. has seven RBIs in his last four games and is batting .333 (11-for-33) during an eight-game hitting streak. Over his past 12 games, Smith is batting .311 (14-for-45) with five homers and 16 RBIs. Smith hit six homers in 310 at-bats last year for Triple-A Buffalo.

Renato Núñez is batting .333 (20-for-60) over his last 15 games with five homers and 13 RBIs. Núñez has hit four home runs over his past six games.

Tonight, right-hander Alex Cobb (0-1, 11.88 ERA) will make his third start of the season with a rematch versus the Twins. He came off the injured list in Game 2 of the doubleheader last Saturday and gave up nine runs and three homers in 2 2/3 innings. The runs and homers allowed matched his career highs. In five career starts versus Minnesota, Cobb is 2-2 with a 6.75 ERA.

Lefty Martín Pérez (2-0, 5.31 ERA) will make his sixth appearance and third start. He got the win in that game against Cobb, allowing six hits and four runs over six innings. Núñez hit a two-run homer against him. On the season over 20 1/3 innings, Pérez has allowed 24 hits with 12 walks and 19 strikeouts. In eight career games against Baltimore, he is 3-4 with a 5.44 ERA.