Brooks Lee had a go-ahead two-run double with two outs in the eighth inning to propel the Minnesota Twins to a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, completing a three-game sweep with their fifth straight victory.
Lee's double came off reliever Gregory Soto, who entered after Yennier Cano (0-2) walked Harrison Bader leading off and Byron Buxton with one out. Soto struck out Trevor Larnach before Lee doubled to center. Ty France followed with an RBI single for a three-run lead.
"Brooks Lee had a real interesting day because he had some things go on today that were tough," says manager Rocco Baldelli. "And then he also had some things that he overcame all that and on both sides of the ball and ended up being a key player in the in the win. So, I was really impressed with what with what he did. There's a lot of other stuff I could say but that that was really great to see."
Buxton went 0 for 2 after homering in three straight games, but he walked twice, scored two runs, stole a base and threw a runner out at home.
Emmanuel Rivera and Ramón Laureano had RBI doubles in back-to-back innings off Twins starter Bailey Ober to take a 2-1 lead in the third.
Buxton threw out Rivera, who doubled and was trying to score on a Gunnar Henderson single in the sixth.
The Twins tied it in the bottom half on a leadoff homer by Larnach — his fifth. Kremer has surrendered eight of Baltimore's MLB-high 55 homers.
Ober allowed two runs — one earned — on eight hits in five innings. Griffin Jax (1-2) pitched a scoreless eighth and Jhoan Duran earned his sixth save.
"Today is just kind of a testament to that, just being able to stay in the game, battle, keep going, but make it a huge play out in center field and tremendous throw," Ober said after the game. "Our bats being able to kind of stay with it and get some really good at-bats in the 8th inning and obviously come away with the lead. That's all around good team baseball."
Kremer went seven innings, allowing two runs on three hits with eight strikeouts for the Orioles, who have lost five straight and 9 of 11.
Minnesota's Royce Lewis is in a 0-for-30 slump dating to last season.
Orioles catcher Maverick Handley singled in the fourth for his first career hit.
Key moment
Ober stranded eight runners, and Baltimore was 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position off the right-hander.
Key stat
Twins pitchers entered with the fifth-best ERA in the AL at 3.48 and fourth in strikeouts with 327. The Orioles were last in both at 5.50 and 247.
Up next
The Twins haven't named a starter for Friday's opener of a three-game series with the Giants with Joe Ryan - who was supposed to start Thursday - being sick.