Byron Buxton hit his second game-ending home run of the season, a two-run drive off Jorge López in the ninth inning that lifted the Minnesota Twins over the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 on Friday night.
“That was the big kind of exclamation point we’ve been looking for on one of these nights,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’ve been grinding real hard a lot this week, played some pretty good, competitive baseball, didn’t do enough to get over the hump on some of these games. This is different. This is just fantastic.”
Baltimore took a 2-1 lead when Ryan McKenna doubled off Caleb Thielbar leading off the eighth, advanced on Trey Mancini’s groundout and scored as Jorge Mateo grounded to Luis Arraez with the infield in, beating the second baseman’s late and off-line throw home.