Short start and costly error factor into 6-2 loss (with quotes)

MINNESOTA - Put the first inning of tonight's game in a time capsule for future generations to study. For them to gain a better understanding of how a season can unravel so easily like a ball of yarn. How breaks keep eluding teams that are unable to create their own good fortune and anything that can go wrong is bound to happen.

Tim Beckham wallops the first pitch from Twins starter Lance Lynn and center fielder Jake Cave makes a leaping catch at the fence to rob him of a home run. Beckham rounds first base and raises his helmet out of respect. The urge to slam it to the ground is resisted.

The Twins respond with three straight singles off Dylan Bundy to take the lead and a second run scores after Beckham allows Trey Mancini's one-hopper to deflect off his glove and roll toward the dugout.

It's irrelevant that the Twins lost 11 of 13 games before the series. The Orioles don't need any company with their misery.

A fourth single in the first inning created a three-run deficit for the Orioles and they went down a familiar path in a 6-2 loss to the Twins at Target Field.

A defensive miscue and a failure to generate much of an offense. Toss in a starter who doesn't make it out of the fourth inning and the outcome is predictable.

Max Kepler hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning, the ball landing in the second deck in right field and the Orioles lost for the 11th time in 12 games and the 22nd time in 27. The worst record in baseball reads 24-63 overall and 12-34 on the road.

The Orioles have scored two runs or fewer in 38 games, including seven of their last eight. If not for a throwing error on Twins first baseman Logan Morrison in the seventh, they would have been held to one run for the 24th time.

Opportunity knocks and too often goes ignored.

The Orioles loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the fourth, but Joey Rickard grounded out. The Twins responded in the bottom half by scoring three runs and chasing Bundy, who lasted only 3 1/3 in his second-shortest outing of the season. He didn't retire a Royals batter on May 8.

The rotation has notched 41 quality starts, including 10 from Bundy, who returned from the disabled list tonight. But Kepler's ball that traveled an estimated 427 feet guaranteed that Bundy wouldn't build on it, and Joe Mauer's RBI single hammered home the point.

Bundy was charged with five earned runs (six total) and nine hits, with one walk and two strikeouts. His ERA climbed from 3.75 to 4.08 and Paul Fry stranded two runners to keep it from worsening.

Fry retired all seven batters he faced and struck out four. Mike Wright Jr. followed with 1 1/3 scoreless innings, running his streak to 8 2/3 in his last four appearances and lowering his ERA to 4.93.

Joe Mauer, Eddie Rosario and Brian Dozier singled in succession to start the bottom of the first. A comebacker and strikeout threatened to keep Dozier at third base and the deficit at two runs, but Jorge Polanco punched a single into left field against the shift for a 3-0 lead.

Polanco beat the shift again in the fourth with a bunt single. It's still within the rules.

Bundy threw 19 pitches in the first, but only eight in the second and seven in the third. The Twins worked him for 27 as he labored in the fourth.

Scouts have descended upon Target Field, including representatives from the Indians and Diamondbacks. Sellers at the non-waiver deadline tend to draw a crowd.

Manny Machado singled in the first inning, walked and scored a run in the sixth on Chris Davis' hit and singled again in the seventh. Further confirmation that he's good. Check that box.

Zach Britton and Brad Brach didn't pitch tonight.

Davis also grounded out twice and lined to center field. He didn't strike out, keeping him tied with Cal Ripken Jr. for the club record of 1,305.

Beckham tried to score on Machado's one-out single in the seventh, but Rosario threw him out. Mark Trumbo flied to right and the Orioles again settled for one run on the Morrison throw that drilled Beckham in the back and allowed Caleb Joseph to race home.

Jonathan Schoop followed Davis' RBI single in the sixth with a 6-4-3 double play on the 10th pitch from Lynn. Schoop singled in the fourth inning for his sixth hit in the last four games.

The bullpen turned in 4 2/3 scoreless innings, but the Orioles couldn't be rescued.

Manager Buck Showalter on Bundy in the fourth: "Just elevated some pitches. He hadn't pitched in 12 days. To be expected. I thought he settled in there in the second and third inning. It looked like Dylan. Then he got the ball back up again. With that many left-handed hitters, you're going to have some secondary pitches working. It's usually in Dylan's favor when it's like that because he can really get in a groove with it, but command of the fastball. He got a couple changeups up. But he'll be better, he'll be better. A lot of things I worry about. Dylan isn't one of them."

Showalter on whether first inning dictated tone: "It may be there for an inning, but on the flip side, I can't tell you how many times a team's led off with a home run and gets beat. There might be a small period there where you've got a woe is me, but the guy made a great play on a ball that wasn't quite it far enough to go over his glove. We hit it to the furthest part of the park almost. That would be a convenient excuse."

Showalter on bullpen: "Very quietly, Mike Wright had been throwing the ball real well for a long period of time. He got his ERA, it's really working its way down. And a lot of the peripherals are getting better. Michael (Givens) hadn't been out there in five days. We had to get him out there. Heck, Mike Wright hadn't been out there in eight days. But Paulie was impressive.

"Pitching looks easy when you locate a fastball and spin a ball for a strike anytime in the count, but it's not that easy. But he was in a really good place today. All of their switch-hitters you want to turn around with the exception of (Robbie) Grossman. You don't want him to hit right-handed if you can help it. But it's a really good lineup for a left-handed pitcher who's on top of his game."

Showalter on two of Joseph's three hits going to right field: "I was talking to him today in my office. I said, 'You came here swinging the bat real well from Norfolk,' and then after about six or seven games, he had some tough-luck line drives and then he changed something in his stance. You talk to players today, if you think you're going to go from zero to 100 here, it doesn't work that way. It's two steps forward, one step back. The pitching's too good. You're going to have those days.

"You've got to equate success in winning an at-bat and that may be taking a walk. I'd love to have had some home runs tonight. I'd love to have some singles last night. We're just having trouble putting it together. Caleb, there's nobody more in tune with trying to win a baseball game than Caleb Joseph on this team. That's what makes him so attractive and people want him around."

Bundy on fourth inning: "Yeah, just leaving pitches down the middle of the plate. That home run was a changeup right down the middle. If anything, I was trying to miss low and just ended up right down the middle and he hit it out. And then that was pretty much how the whole game was, throwing stuff down the middle."

Bundy on whether first inning happened quick: "Oh, yeah, real quick. It's just single, single, single, single and the next thing you know we're in a hole and there's three runs on the board in the first innings and it's hard to get out of it."

Bundy on what ran through his mind after Beckham was robbed: "Unfortunate. It was a good play, but it was unfortunate. It could have been 1-0 there, but obviously we weren't, so you've just got to go out there and try to put up zeroes the best I can and today wasn't one of those days."

Joseph on Bundy: "He was fighting his command. Pretty simple. He was having a hard time getting the ball where he wanted on a consistent basis over and over. There were spurts when he got it and he got outs when he got the ball where he wanted to. And when he didn't they hit it hard. With a guy who's had a lot of time off, you don't expect it, but you get it.

"When he gets going and he's mechanically sound, he can get it where he wants to, which is why he's been so successful, not only this year, but throughout his career. He was fighting getting the ball where he wanted to. His stuff was fine. It was there, but getting it to where he wanted, they really made him pay for some of his mistakes."

Joseph on Beckham being robbed: "Yep, it seems like it's just par for the course for the 2018 season, right? You feel really good. He smokes the ball off a nice starter on their side. You get excited and their guy makes a tremendous play. He made one yesterday, too. They've made some nice plays on defense and before you know it, you blink and you're down 3-0. Not only is the wind knocked out of your sails when the guy robs a home run, but you're down.

"We've obviously come back before and obviously you don't give up. He made some really nice pitches on us. He's got some really nice stuff. Electric two-seam that's really tough to square up. You saw a lot of ground balls, but yeah, you'd like to really counter that with a nice clean inning and just get into it, especially when he's had some time off, but they were aggressive on mistakes and we couldn't put it together."

Joseph on going to right field: " I'm just trying not to strike out. I'm tired of striking out, tired of punching out and not giving yourself a chance. If you can let the ball get deep and trust that you can still put the barrel on it, sometimes it goes to right. I'd like to say it was intentional, but no. I just swung and the ball went to right field. It's just a conscious effort to not punch (out) as much. It's a lonely walk to the dugout."