Orioles have lost four of five on homestand after promising start

It sure feels like the Orioles missed a real chance the last few days. The Twins have a winning percentage of .479 this year when they are playing any team except the Orioles. They are 6-0 against Baltimore.

When the Orioles went to Minnesota in early July, the Twins were just 13-20 in their previous 33 games. They then swept three straight from the Orioles. When the Twins came to Baltimore for this series they were 13-22 over their previous 35 games. Now they have won three in a row against the Orioles again.

The Twins' last four-game sweep in Baltimore was from Aug. 23-26, 2007. It is pretty unbelievable that Minnesota was not playing well either time they showed up to play the Orioles this season. Yet they are 6-0 against them.

The Orioles are being outplayed by Minnesota and they have batted just .229 to the Twins' .303 while being outscored 39-15 in the six games. The Orioles have scored two, three, three, two, three and two in those games against the Twins. Not more than three runs even one time. The Orioles have a 6.54 team ERA in the season series to the Twins' 2.45.

The last two nights, the Orioles have lost leads to the Twins. But their offense has not given the pitchers much to work with either or much margin for error. Maybe the Orioles have not recovered from seeing Darren O'Day unable to hold a two-run lead on Friday night.

Over the last three games, the Orioles have just seven runs on 22 hits with a team average of .227 in this series. The Orioles have hit one homer against the Twins in the series after hitting 15 in the previous six games. It's a similar theme for the club - very few homers usually means very few runs.

Little things loom large in close games. On Friday night, a bloop just out of the reach of Jonathan Schoop and a missed cutoff man by Gerardo Parra. Last night, the Twins executed a squeeze bunt while the Orioles left the bases loaded in the sixth. They had taken a 2-1 lead there but failed to get more than one run in the rally.

Chris Tillman looked like he had great stuff in last night's game. He retired 14 in a row through the fifth inning. But given so little offense to work with, his seven-game win streak ended and he took a loss for the first time since May 31.

The Twins have gotten well against the Orioles yet again. Meanwhile a promising start to this homestand - one where they went 4-0 - has been followed by four losses in five games for the Orioles.