BALTIMORE — Gunnar Henderson grounded the third pitch of the game just past a diving Edouard Julien into the outfield. The knock was struck at 108.0 miles per hour off the bat and was an early sign of what was to come against Twins starter Chris Paddack.
Paddack was bashed by the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night, giving up all kinds of hard contact on a tough night. The Twins’ starter allowed 10 balls hit at 100 mph or higher and gave up nine runs, tying a career worst, in the Twins’ 11-3 loss to the Orioles.
“It’s a young, hungry lineup. They had a really good approach,” Paddack said. “I thought we executed some really good pitches. Some of those pitches, I kind of just shook my head like you’ve got to tip your cap sometimes. … That’s a tough one to swallow.”
Things unraveled early for Paddack and the Twins (6-10), beginning in the second inning when the starter gave up three runs, all with a pair of outs. Two came on a Henderson home run.
Four more runners reached home in the third inning — two on a two-run blast by Jordan Westberg — and the Orioles (11-6) tacked on another run in the fourth and one more in the sixth, the last an inherited runner after Paddack had departed.
“Things kind of snowballed,” Paddack said. “I would say two strikes in, two out, I’ve got to be better. At the end of the day, I take responsibility in that.”
Before the sixth inning started, Paddack said he asked manager Rocco Baldelli for 10 more pitches — he wanted to help preserve the bullpen and “be a warrior out there,” despite the night’s results.
The nine-run outburst bloated Paddack’s earned-run average to 8.36 — 13 earned runs in 14 innings. His bad night came after the prolific Orioles offense hung six runs on Louie Varland a day earlier in a game that had a more or less similar feel.
The Twins’ offense was led on Tuesday in part by Ryan Jeffers, who had another two hits. Jeffers scored one of the Twins’ runs, coming home on an Alex Kirilloff single. Byron Buxton drove in Kirilloff for the team’s first run with a triple in the fourth inning.
On an otherwise unremarkable night for the Twins, 24-year-old catcher Jair Camargo pinch hit in the ninth inning, drawing a walk in his first major league plate appearance in front of a crowd that included enthusiastic family members who had arrived in town from his native Colombia just in time for the game. He would later come around to score on a Jose Miranda single.
But otherwise, there wasn’t much for the Twins to hang their hats on Tuesday as they sunk to their third straight loss and 6-10 on the season.
“We’re not playing good baseball. Today, we weren’t close to winning the game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We have to pitch better, we have to play better defensively and play crisper, sharper baseball, and we have to have better at-bats.”
