O's lose lead and game, fall 4-3 as Twins score three in eighth

Six outs away from an important win over the Minnesota Twins, things unraveled for the Orioles tonight amid a few bloop hits and other miscues in the top of the eighth inning.

Trailing by two runs at the start of the inning, Minnesota scored three runs off Darren O'Day in that frame to come from behind and beat the Orioles 4-3 in front of 32,025 at Camden Yards. The Twins have taken the first two games of this series and are 5-0 versus the Orioles this year, outscoring them 36-13.

Miguel Sano walked to start the inning and went to second on Trevor Plouffe's bloop hit that was just out of the reach of second baseman Jonathan Schoop. When O'Day hit Torii Hunter the bases were loaded with no outs. Eddie Rosario's sac fly made it 3-2 and the runners advanced to second and third when Gerardo Parra's throw to third was late on the play. Then, with the infield drawn in, Kurt Suzuki dumped a flare into short right-field. It scored two runs for the 4-3 lead. Suzuki is 8-for-17 against the Orioles this season.

O'Day began the night with an 11-outing scoreless streak over his last 11 1/3 innings. Tonight he allowed a season-high three runs.

Earlier, it looked like Twins left-hander Tommy Milone would pitch another strong game against the Orioles. But that all changed within the span of three batters in the last of the sixth. Parra's three-run homer to right in the inning gave the Orioles the 3-1 lead.

Milone beat the Orioles on July 8 when he gave up just one run in seven innings. Heading into the sixth tonight he had retired 13 in a row, was pitching a one-hitter and took the mound leading 1-0.

But then No. 9 hitter Nolan Reimold led off with a single to left and raced to third on Manny Machado's base hit to center. Parra then crushed the first pitch to right field for a 3-1 lead. He jumped on a 73 mph curveball for his fifth Orioles homer in 19 games and his fourth in the last seven games. During an eight-game hitting streak, Parra is 14-for-35 (.400) with four homers and nine RBIs.

The Twins took a 1-0 lead during what was a 37-pitch top of the fourth for Wei-Yin Chen. Sano led off with a single, advanced to second on a walk, to third on an infield and he scored on a bases-loaded walk to No. 9 hitter Eduardo Nunez. Nunez drew a nine-pitch walk to provide the Twins the 1-0 edge.

Chen went six innings and gave up seven hits and the one run with two walks and three strikeouts. The blown lead cost him his eighth win. Over his last three starts, Chen has a 1.77 ERA and he has allowed three earned runs or less in 15 of his past 16 starts.

The Orioles fall to 5-3 on this homestand, 37-23 at home, 12-12 against the Central and to 62-59 on the season.

In the third game of this series on Saturday night, Chris Tillman (9-7, 4.54 ERA) faces right-hander Kyle Gibson (8-9, 3.99 ERA).