Brooks Lee delivers clutch two-run double as Twins sweep Orioles

Ty France added an extra insurance run with an RBI double of his own, and Jhoan Duran came in to lock down his sixth save of the season and his fourth in the last six days. The Twins have now won a season-high five games in a row. At 18-20, they're just two games back of .500 heading into a weekend home series against the Giants. They've won ten of their last 11 games at Target Field.

In addition to Lee's clutch knock and a three-hit day from France, Byron Buxton continued to make impact plays for Minnesota. His three-game homer streak ended and he didn't even record a hit on Thursday, but he contributed to winning in other ways. Buxton walked twice, stole his eighth base of the year, scored two runs, and threw out a runner at home to keep the Twins within a run in the sixth inning.

France drove in Buxton to open the scoring in the first inning. Then, after a couple Orioles runs, Trevor Larnach tied it for the Twins with a solo home run in the sixth. That set the stage for Lee's heroics in the eighth.

Twins starter Bailey Ober danced around trouble for basically his entire day, doing quite well to keep his team in the game. In four consecutive innings from the second through the fifth, he found himself in a situation with two runners on base and fewer than two outs. After allowing a run in the second, he buckled down with a pair of big strikeouts to escape a jam. In the third, the Orioles took the lead thanks in part to Lee's error, but Ober struck out two more to limit the damage. He got out of another jam in the fourth with a strikeout and double play, then somehow wriggled out of a spot with two runners in scoring position and no outs in the fifth.

The Twins' big right-hander finished his day having allowed two runs (one earned) on eight hits, one walk, and one hit by pitch in five innings. He struck out six. Ober has allowed only one earned run in six of his last seven starts after an ugly season debut, bringing his ERA down to 3.50.

The Orioles were 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base, eight of which came in innings two through five. The Twins went 3 for 7 with RISP. That's how they won 5-2 on a day where they were out-hit 10 to 5.

Cole Sands (with Buxton's help), Justin Topa, Griffin Jax, and Duran combined for four scoreless innings out of Minnesota's bullpen. Jax was credited with the win, his first of the year.

Chris Paddack will start for the Twins on Friday night against San Francisco as they look to win a sixth consecutive game. Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez will follow him over the weekend. Ryan was originally scheduled to start on Thursday, but he's been pushed back two days while dealing with an illness.