Orioles close first half with 11-5 win and series split

MINNEAPOLIS - Whose idea was it to stop the season?

The Orioles have closed the first half with back-to-back victories, jumping out to an early lead today and defeating the Twins 11-5 to gain a series split before an announced crowd of 25,848 at Target Field.

Adam Jones homered twice and drove in five runs, Caleb Joseph had three RBIs and Ubaldo Jiménez was scored upon in only one of his five innings.

Jiménez had allowed only nine earned runs in 44 2/3 innings at Target Field before today for a career 1.81 ERA. He surrendered four runs in the second and made it through the fifth on 103 pitches.

The Orioles improved to 42-46 overall, 17-30 on the road and 8-16 against the American League Central. They won consecutive games away from home for the fifth time this season and only the second since April 30-May 1.

With the Blue Jays' 19-1 loss today to the Astros, the Orioles again have sole possession of fourth place in the East. They remain four games behind the third-place Rays.

The season resumes Friday night against the Cubs at Camden Yards. This is no time to ice a team that's finally heating up.

Eleven runs is the most scored by the Orioles since a 15-7 win over the Cardinals on June 17, a span of 21 games. They hadn't topped eight runs.

Manny Machado had an RBI single in the eighth and Jones lifted a sacrifice fly to complete the day's scoring for the Orioles. Rubén Tejada and Seth Smith each picked up their third hits.

Jones staked the Orioles to a 3-0 lead in the first inning with his second three-run homer off Kyle Gibson this season. He also did it on May 22 at Camden Yards. And Jones led off the fifth with a shot into the second deck inside the left field foul pole to increase the lead to 6-4.

Jones is 5-for-20 lifetime against Gibson with a double and four home runs.

The multi-homer game was the first for Jones this season and the 11th of his career. The 15 home runs this season moved him ahead of Mark Trumbo and Trey Mancini and left him three behind Machado and Jonathan Schoop.

Smith led off with a walk and Schoop singled with one out. Jones followed with a 444-foot shot - according to the Twins - into the second deck above the bullpens in left-center field, his longest home run of the season. Statcast measured it at 452 feet. Still the longest.

Jones now has 769 RBIs with the Orioles to pass Ken Singleton (766) for fifth place on the club's all-time list. Singleton played in 1,446 games with the Orioles over 10 seasons. Today marked Jones' 1,402nd game in his 10th season.

Joseph concluded a 12-pitch at-bat in the second inning with a run-scoring double to right field after Hyun Soo Kim led off with a walk. Tejada laid down a sacrifice bunt and Joseph scored on Smith's single for a 5-0 lead. Machado followed with a single, giving the Orioles seven baserunners in 11 plate appearances against Gibson.

The game spun in the other direction in the bottom of the second. The Twins scored four runs, with Jiménez hitting a batter and walking three, including Brian Dozier with the bases loaded. Robbie Grossman had a two-run single and Max Kepler followed with an RBI double, as Jiménez slogged through a 43-pitch inning.

Good Ubaldo returned in the third, when he retired the side in order on 10 pitches, and the fourth, when he retired the side in order on eight pitches. He stranded two runners in the fifth.

Jiménez was charged with four runs and four hits with four walks and three strikeouts in five innings. He hit a batter and threw a wild pitch, and he goes into the break with 6.67 ERA in 83 2/3 innings.

Jones sparked a four-run fifth inning with his second homer, measured at 414 feet by the Twins and 419 by Statcast. Joseph drove in two runs with a single into right-center field off reliever Tyler Duffey to give him 17 RBIs - 17 more than last season - and he scored on Tejada's double for a 9-4 lead.

Left-hander Richard Bleier retired the first six batters he faced, but Tejada's fielding error in the eighth opened the door for an unearned run. Zach Britton retired the side in order in the ninth with two ground balls and a strikeout.

Bleier could use a little rest after throwing 34 pitches, 29 for strikes, in 2 2/3 innings and lowering his ERA to 1.48.

The Orioles may want to keep going.

Note: Triple-A Norfolk catcher Chance Sisco had an RBI triple and scored a run in the All-Star Futures Game. He homered last year.