Brooks Lee's clutch double powers Twins past Orioles 5-2 for a three-game sweep

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on May 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — Brooks Lee struck out in his first three at-bats and committed an error that led to a run Thursday, but all was forgiven with one swing in the eighth inning.

Lee, batting with the score tied and two outs, laced an elevated fastball in a two-strike count against Baltimore Orioles lefty Gregory Soto into the left-center gap for a two-run double.

The Minnesota Twins dugout erupted, and Lee let out a long yell as he stood on second base.

After a gutsy performance from Twins starter Bailey Ober, who moved up his start by a day because Joe Ryan was sick, Lee delivered the go-ahead hit in a 5-2 victory to complete a three-game sweep over Baltimore at Target Field.

The Twins have won five straight games and 11 of their last 16.

It was the first time the Twins swept the Orioles since 2021, when they carried a multi-year, 16-game winning streak against them.

After Trevor Larnach hit a game-tying, solo homer in the sixth inning, the Twins set up their eighth-inning rally with a pair of walks from Harrison Bader and Byron Buxton. Larnach, a lefty, struck out against the left-handed Soto before Lee’s clutch hit. Ty France added an RBI single.

The Twins gave Ober a couple of days’ notice that they might need him to pitch Thursday after Ryan was sick with flu-like symptoms.

Ober surrendered eight hits and a walk in five innings, but he saved his best pitches for whenever there were runners in scoring position.

After giving up an RBI double to Emmanuel Rivera with one out in the second inning, he stranded runners on second and third when he struck out Maverick Handley on three pitches and he forced Gunnar Henderson to chase a changeup in the dirt.

The Orioles scored a run in the third inning after Lee committed an error on a potential double play grounder, the ball skipping off his glove into right field. Ryan Mountcastle gave Baltimore a 2-1 lead with a sacrifice fly, and Ramón Laureano followed with a double to put two runners in scoring position with one out.

For the second straight inning, Ober responded with back-to-back strikeouts to leave two runners on base.

After Baltimore collected back-to-back singles to open the fourth inning, from the bottom two hitters in the Orioles lineup, Ober struck out Henderson on an elevated fastball and induced a double play against former No. 1 overall pick Jackson Holliday. Ober pumped his fist twice while letting out a yell.

Ober worked his magic again in the fifth inning after it started with a hit batsman and a double. There was activity in the Twins bullpen with two runners in scoring position and no outs. Ober induced a foul out to the catcher, struck out Heston Kjerstad on three pitches and ended the inning with a groundout. Ober, typically stoic on the mound, punched his arm after the final out.

Not many pitchers can hold up through that much pressure on the basepaths. Ober yielded two runs (one earned). He struck out six, each strikeout coming in a situation where there were two runners on base.

It was Byron Buxton’s turn to save a run in the sixth inning with Ober out of the game. Cole Sands, who gave up a leadoff double to Rivera, watched Henderson line a single to center field. Buxton fired a throw to the plate, nabbing a sliding Rivera at the plate. After the out, catcher Christian Vázquez held up his mitt in appreciation to Buxton.

The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Buxton drew a leadoff walk, just his sixth base on balls this year. Buxton swiped second base and scored when France hit a two-out RBI single through the right side of the infield.

Buxton, who has scored five runs in the last four games, is tied for second in the American League with 28 runs this season behind only Aaron Judge’s 34.

Orioles starter Dean Kremer, who entered with a 5.73 ERA in seven starts, retired 11 of his next 12 batters — France blooped a one-out single in the fourth inning — following France’s first inning hit. With one out in the sixth inning, Larnach deposited an inside fastball from Kremer over the right field wall for a game-tying solo homer.

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