Orioles clinch home-field advantage in wild-card round with 7-2 win over Twins
MINNEAPOLIS—The Orioles will begin the wild-card series at Camden Yards on Tuesday. While they don’t know their opponent yet, the Orioles secured home-field advantage in the best-of-three series with a 7-2 win over the Minnesota Twins before 26,058 at Target Field on Friday night.
The Orioles needed a win or a loss by the Detroit Tigers, but the Tigers won their sixth straight, clinching a playoff spot by handing the Chicago White Sox a 4-1 loss, their 121st, setting a modern-day record.
Kansas City clinched a wild-card spot despite a 3-0 loss to Atlanta because the Twins (82-78) were eliminated.
The Orioles (89-71) will play either the Tigers or Royals Tuesday, Wednesday and, if necessary, Thursday.
Cade Povich, who was sent to the Orioles from Minnesota in August 2022 in a trade for Jorge López, gave up a double to Byron Buxton with two outs in the first and retired 11 in a row until Kyle Farmer walked with one out in the fifth. Farmer moved to second on a wild pitch before Ryan Jeffers flied to left, and Christian Vázquez popped to second.
Ryan O’Hearn hit a two-run home run against Minnesota starter Pablo López in the second, scoring Adley Rutschman, who singled. It was O’Hearn’s first home run since August 27th.
The Orioles loaded the bases against López (15-10) in the sixth, and he was removed after he struck out Ramón Urías on his career-high 111th pitch. Gunnar Henderson hit into a force out against Caleb Thielbar.
Povich (3-9) gave up a double to Manuel Margot with one out in the sixth. He had retired Margot on a fly to center on 13 pitches in the first. After Carlos Correa grounded to short, Jacob Webb replaced Povich. Buxton flied to center to end the sixth.
In 5 2/3 scoreless innings, Povich allowed two hits, walked one ans struck out two. In his previous two starts, Povich gave up two runs on two hits in five innings.
Webb retired the four batters he faced.
Colton Cowser homered against the left-handed Thielbar in the seventh, his 24th, to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead.
The Orioles extended their lead to 7-0 with four runs in the eighth. They scored on four straight singles, a sacrifice fly by Henderson, an infield out by Jordan Westburg and an RBI single by Anthony Santander, all against Kody Funderburk.
Danny Coulombe pitched a hitless eighth. Carlos Santana had a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth against Seranthony Domínguez, who was shaky but finished the game.