Gonzalez’s fall-off puzzles Orioles

On this occasion, however, past performances meant nothing.

Byron Buxton picked up his first major league RBI with a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning, and the Minnesota Twins extended their dominance of the Baltimore Orioles with a 3-2 victory Saturday night.

“He’s got a strong constitution”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.

Right fielder Torii Hunter walked with the bases loaded to force across Minnesota’s first run, catcher Kurt Suzuki singled in two more.

After O’Day issued a leadoff stroll to Miguel Sano within the eighth, Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe lifted a bloop into shallow proper area that dropped between Parra and second baseman Jonathan Schoop. “It’s tough to watch, but you have to keep grinding and stay focused and like I said, stay on the same path we were on”. “Those bounces go my way usually, but didn’t tonight”.

The Twins were delighted to take those fortunate hops. Manager Paul Molitor is keeping a level head with his young squad: “We have to move forward”.

The Twins and Orioles will square off at 7:05PM ET and if this matchup is anything like previous games, the home crowd will be disappointed tonight. But it wasn’t enough.

The Minnesota Twins still have a lot of work to do if they are to climb back into American League wild card position, but they are not going down without a fight.

“It’s a big victory because we’re playing a team that’s pretty good and they’re ahead of us right now, and we’re trying to get in that wild card, ” Hunter said. Sano has reached base safely in eight straight games and in his last seven games he’s hitting. Where as last night the O’s were slugged and power hit to death, it appeared that they used the same power concept to take the lead.

Perkins blew his second save of the season in an 8-7 loss to the New York Yankees on Monday in his third outing in as many days. An Eddie Rosario sac fly made it 3-2. That’s what led to the Twins scoring three runs in the eighth off O’Day.

Minnesota went up 1-0 in the fourth when No. 9 hitter Eduardo Nunez worked out of an 0-2 count to draw a walk with the bases loaded and two outs. Chen then induced a groundout from Buxton to minimize the damage.

Orioles: OF-1B Steve Pearce (strained left oblique) will begin a rehabilitation assignment Saturday with Double-A Bowie.

Unfortunately, he has uncharacteristically struggled ever since he came back from the DL back in late June.

In his past five starts, Gonzalez has allowed 22 runs over 25 1/3 innings. Chris Davis, who had two hits in the series opener, is 10-for-27 in his last seven contests and 4-for-11 with two homers against Friday starter Tommy Milone. Baltimore’s Chris Tillman hasn’t lost since May 31 – going 7-0 in his last 12 starts – and opposes Kyle Gibson, who is winless in six turns (0-3) since the All-Star break.