Twins stopped again by Orioles as Sonny Gray gets rocked in second inning

Sonny Gray pitched five no-hit innings on Saturday, the Twins All-Star righthander masterfully mowing down Orioles hitters who didn't even manage to drive a ball into the outfield over his final four innings.

For his efforts, Gray was charged with his third consecutive loss.

That's because Gray's day was actually six innings long, and in that additional frame, the Orioles tagged Gray with a bewildering six singles, two walks and six runs, more than enough to hand the Twins a 6-2 defeat at Target Field.

"What, maybe one of those balls was hit hard?" Ryan Jeffers said, shaking his head after catching eight no-hit innings from Gray, Oliver Ortega and Jorge López. "There were a couple of ground balls that found holes. There were a couple of bloopers that carried just over the infield. He was making pitches, and they just — it's just baseball."

The second inning was particularly bizarre considering Gray had not allowed an opponent to score more than three runs against him in any of his 17 previous starts this year. But Baltimore piled up five runs that inning before Gray even recorded an out.

"I'm fine with every one of the pitches that were made," Gray said. "You look up and they're just poking it the other way, they're staying inside, they're just hitting it in the holes. … What are you going to do?"

Ironically, what he's going to do after his worst, or at least weirdest, start of the season is head for Seattle and Tuesday's All-Star Game. Gray, after all, didn't so much as allow a ball to be hit out of the infield after that six-run inning, retiring 12 of the 13 hitters he faced, and his ERA, even after the nightmare inning, is still 2.89, sixth-best in the American League.

"I still will be sitting on this one for a day, especially that inning," the veteran said. "But I will regroup and figure it out."

The Twins need to figure out why they can't win with an All-Star on the mound. Gray hasn't been credited with a victory since April 30, and the Twins are somehow 8-10 on the season, and 3-9 since May 1, when Gray pitches.

Here's a big part of the reason: a lousy offense. Tyler Wells, a former Twins draft pick lost to the Orioles in the 2020 Rule 5 draft, held them to two runs over six innings to improve to 7-4, and Minnesota failed to score three runs for the 35th time in 90 games.

Donovan Solano doubled three times, one of them driving in Byron Buxton from first base, but the Twins went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, one night after going 1-for-9.

Still, this was a winnable game, but for one of the most peculiar innings of the year. Ryan O'Hearn began the Orioles' ambush with a single that a diving second baseman Edouard Julien could only deflect as it sped by. Justin Hays and Aaron Hicks followed with soft singles to load the bases.

Gray then threw a four-pitch walk, at least according to home plate umpire Ben May. MLB's StatCast radar showed ball four, a low fastball, was clearly in the strike zone, and Gray demonstrably agreed from the mound. But May called it a ball, forcing in the tying run.

"I mean, it was a strike," Gray said with a shrug. "You get to 3-1 and you've still got a chance. He got up 3-0 his next at-bat as well and he ended up going strike, strike and a ground ball to first. So yeah, that pitch definitely changes things."

After a mound conference, Gray walked in another run, missing with a 3-2 sinker to Ramón Urías. And Adam Frazier followed with a bloop into left field that fell for another hit, scoring two more. Gunnar Henderson, the seventh consecutive Orioles batter to reach base, then singled home Baltimore's fifth run, prompting Ortega to begin warming up in the bullpen.

Gray struck out Adley Rutschman for the first out of the inning, but Anthony Santander hit a solid single to right to give Baltimore a six-run inning. Only when O'Hearn lined Gray's 36th pitch of the inning directly at Solano, who doubled Santander off first base, did Gray's torturous inning end.

"He had everything. He had his stuff today. He was Sonny today — lights-out," Jeffers mused. "Outside of that second inning, sure, but even then, he made good pitches. It's just part of the sport."