Last game before the break

MINNEAPOLIS - The Orioles understand that they can't make up all of this lost ground in one or two games. With one or two swings. With a few quality starts.

You spend that much time digging a hole, you don't climb out of it in a couple of seconds.

"One game at time, don't think about yesterday," said Jonathan Schoop, who enabled the Orioles to improve to 1-0 yesterday with him as the starting shortstop. "Today we have to win. Now don't think about today. Come back tomorrow trying to win again. Don't think you win today and then have a sloppy game tomorrow. Come back tomorrow and try to win again."

Tomorrow has arrived. Yesterday provided the blueprint. A decent start from Wade Miley followed by a lockdown bullpen, a couple of home runs and solid play in the field. Crispness that's been missing, the recent performances having the texture of cereal soaked overnight in milk.

"If we're looking at the standings right now, we're wrong," Miley said. "We just need to go play day by day and just play the game the right way.

"That was a pretty clean baseball game - it was probably one of the first ones in a while. Just play clean baseball and see where we end up, instead of strive for something or try to do more or sometimes try to do too much. Just play the game and have fun."

Winning is fun. More fun than losing. Feel free to quote me.

No matter how Ubaldo Jiménez is pitching, and he's been all over the map again, manager Buck Showalter makes certain to give him a start in Minnesota.

For whatever reason, Jiménez is 4-1 with a 1.81 ERA in seven career starts at Target Field, with nine earned runs (11 total) and 39 hits in 44 2/3 innings. He's walked 16 batters and struck out 50.

On May 2, 2014, Jiménez shut out the Twins on three hits over 7 1/3 innings with one walk and 10 strikeouts. He tossed five scoreless innings on July 8, 2015, and allowed one run with eight strikeouts over five innings on July 28, 2016.

There's a reason why Showalter targets this location, so to speak.

Jiménez is 5-3 with a 3.13 ERA and 1.377 WHIP in 12 career games (11 starts) versus the Twins over 69 innings. He faced them on May 22 in Baltimore and allowed six runs and nine hits in four innings.

Better to take his act on the road.

Brian Dozier is 9-for-25 (.360) with three doubles against Jiménez. Eduardo Escobar is 4-for-9 with three doubles.

Eddie Rosario is 0-for-8 with five strikeouts and Byron Buxton is 0-for-7 with four strikeouts.

Kyle Gibson is 2-1 with a 4.68 ERA and 1.714 WHIP in six career starts against the Orioles covering 32 2/3 innings. He allowed six runs and seven hits and walked four batters in the May 22 game.

Adam Jones hit a three-run homer in the second inning.

Jones is 3-for-17 (.176) lifetime against Gibson, but two of the hits are home runs and the other is a double. Manny Machado is 4-for-13 (.308) with a double.

Machado is batting .360 (9-for-25) with five RBIs against the Twins this season.

Schoop is hitting .333 (23-for-69) in his last 18 games.