Twins' power comes on in victory over Orioles

SARASOTA, FLA. – The Twins discovered the cure for their spring slump on Sunday: some Orioles pitching.

After scoring only seven runs over its past four games, Minnesota equaled that total in a single inning at Ed Smith Stadium and romped to a 12-7 victory over the error-prone Orioles.

On a breezy afternoon in Sarasota, outfielder Kyle Garlick walloped his team-leading fourth home run of the spring and five other Twins hit home runs of their own as the Twins piled up their biggest offensive output of the spring. They were aided by three Baltimore errors but managed to drive runs home against five of the six Orioles pitchers they faced.

JT Riddle, Garlick and Willians Astudillo all homered off Orioles starter Jorge Lopez during their seven-run third inning. Jorge Polanco connected in the seventh, Trevor Larnach in the eighth and Caleb Hamilton in the ninth for the Twins.

J.A. Happ surrendered a home run, too, to Pedro Severino, leading off the second inning. And the Orioles strung together two singles, two doubles and a throwing error by Luis Arraez in the third to bring home four runs and leave Happ only mildly disappointed with his second start since returning from a case of COVID-19.

"I felt pretty good about the first two innings. And then I missed a little execution, for whatever reason," Happ said. "I'm just trying to remember it's still a little bit early. … Overall, it went fine."

Lewis Thorpe surrendered a line-drive homer to Orioles outfielder Ryan Mountcastle, but bullpen candidates Derek Law and Jorge Alcala combined for three shutout innings and five strikeouts.

The Twins face Atlanta at Hammond Stadium on Monday (noon, FSN).