BALTIMORE — The Minnesota Twins lost a ballgame on Thursday to the Baltimore Orioles.
Oh, and their manager, one of their top hitters, a starting pitcher — at least for the time being — and, potentially, their star shortstop.
On a day when the Twins saw Rocco Baldelli, Luis Arraez and Dylan Bundy test positive for COVID-19, Carlos Correa was also hit twice, the second time on the hand, forcing him out of the game.
The Twins are calling it a right middle finger contusion for Correa, who will have imaging done when the team returns to Minnesota.
And after all that, they saw a tie game broken open in the eighth inning as Austin Hays and Ryan Mountcastle hit back-to-back solo home runs off rookie reliever Jhoan Duran, sending the Twins to a 5-3 loss at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
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Minnesota finished its road swing through Tampa Bay and Baltimore with four wins in the seven games, but the trip was anything but smooth sailing for the Twins, who will leave Baldelli, Arraez and Bundy behind in quarantine.
Also during the trip, the Twins learned first baseman Miguel Sano would require surgery to repair a torn meniscus — he underwent the successful surgery on Thursday morning in New York — saw top prospect Jose Miranda debut and watched as Duran, who has the look of a future closer, locked down his first career save.
The Twins led only briefly Thursday — after Byron Buxton hit his eighth home run of the season, a two-run shot to left-center field in the fifth inning.
That lead dissipated in the bottom of that inning as Caleb Thielbar surrendered a solo home run to Jorge Mateo, and the Twins never saw another lead.
All five runs the Orioles scored came via solo home runs. In addition to the two Duran gave up and the one Thielbar allowed, starter Chris Archer gave up a pair in his four innings of work.
