Aaron Slegers and Jake Cave have been called up from Triple-A by the Minnesota Twins three times apiece this season Michael Deiter Jersey , and the All-Star break is still more than one week away.
Their contributions to this struggling team on Thursday night were sure worthy of a longer stay.
Slegers picked up his first major league win with six smooth innings, Cave reached base all four times he batted, and the Twins stopped their six-game losing streak by hanging on for a 5-2 victory over the lowly Baltimore Orioles.
”I know that I think, and I know Slegers thinks the same thing, that we can play big league baseball,” Cave said. ”We’re ready to go anytime the team needs us, and that’s just kind of how you’ve got to think of it.”
Logan Morrison homered and Cave drove in an eighth-inning insurance run with one of his two doubles for the Twins, who turned to Fernando Rodney in the ninth for his 18th save following two consecutive blown chances. Slegers (1-0) gave up only one run, on the first of two homers by Jonathan Schoop.
”It’s fun to have that in the stat column, to be a major league winner Daniel Jones Jersey ,” Slegers said. ”I can say that for the rest of my life.”
With eight right-handers in the Orioles lineup, except for Chris Davis, Slegers put his sinker to good use against the second-lowest scoring team in MLB. The Orioles managed just three hits against the 6-foot-10 Slegers, who was the latest to fill the recently revolving fifth spot in the rotation. Manager Paul Molitor stopped short of a commitment, but he indicated Slegers earned another turn after needing only 72 pitches to complete those six innings in his first major league start this season.
”Sometimes you make tough decisions to protect those young guys when they’ve had good outings and make sure they feel good when they come out of the game,” Molitor said.
The Orioles squandered another quality start by Andrew Cashner (2-9) and lost for the 10th time in 11 games. They have the worst record in the major leagues at 24-62, just the team the Twins needed to face to start a season-long 11-game homestand after a pivotal 1-8 road trip.
Trailing AL Central-leading Cleveland by 11 1/2 games, Minnesota has become a probable seller before the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31 with several accomplished players on expiring contracts. Baltimore has essentially been in that boat since April, with slugging shortstop Manny Machado widely considered the best asset on the market this summer.
CASHED OUT
Cashner, one of the offseason acquisitions by the Orioles that suggested their commitment to contending in the daunting AL East Dexter Lawrence Jersey , has had more than three runs scored for him in only one of his 17 starts this year. He gave up three runs, two earned, and six hits.
”It’s not like we didn’t want to score for him,” Schoop said. ”I hope things start changing.”
Orioles starters have received the least amount of run support in the major leagues this season.
”I probably had the worst stuff I’ve had this season, but I thought I just grinded throughout the game,” Cashner said. ”When you’re not scoring runs, I feel like I keep my mind sharp on what I want to do out there and thinking pitch to pitch.”
WHOOPS
Cashner was charged with an error in the third, when he was covering first base on a chopper hit by Bobby Wilson to Davis and fumbled the relay toss to let Cave score from second. Wilson eventually scored on a single by Eddie Rosario.
WHIFFS
Rodney struck out Davis to start a perfect ninth, pushing the sputtering slugger into a first-place tie on the Orioles list for strikeouts with 1,305. He is tied with Cal Ripken Jr. Deandre Baker Jersey , who played 3,001 games for Baltimore. Davis has appeared in 972 contests.
MAN, CAVE
Cave, who was recalled from Rochester last week, made a fully extended catch at the wall in right-center to take a potential extra-base hit away from Davis in the fourth inning. Cave doubled twice, driving in one run, to go with a single and an intentional walk.
”He can really flash it out there,” Slegers said.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Orioles: RHP Darren O’Day (strained left hamstring) has been scheduled for his season-ending surgery on July 12. He’ll need six months to recover.
DOZIER’S DAY
Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, who has started 80 of 84 games and appeared in all but one this season, went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. He’s batting .218.
UP NEXT
Orioles: RHP Dylan Bundy (6-7 Oshane Ximines Jersey , 3.75 ERA) will come off the DL to start Friday night. Bundy has been sidelined by a sprained left ankle.
Twins: RHP Lance Lynn (5-7, 5.49 ERA) will take the mound in the second game of the series, coming off his worst turn of the season. He gave up seven runs in Chicago to the Cubs in just 1 2/3 innings.
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The Rams have a 2-0 record and the Saints have some worrying to do about their quarterback.The Rams broke open a 6-6 game with three second half touchdowns to get a 27-9 win over the Saints on Sunday afternoon. The icing on the cake came when wide receiver Cooper Kupp ran through, over and around several Saints defenders for a 66-yard catch-and-run in the fourth quarter. Jared Goff snuck the ball in one play later and the Rams were in cruise control from there.New Orleans will head home with questions about Drew Brees‘s condition. He left the game in the first quarter after banging his right thumb into Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald and was not throwing or holding a ball in that hand while standing on the sideline for the rest of the game.Teddy Bridgewater filled in at quarterback and went 17-of-30 for 165 yards, but the Saints offense looked like a shell of its usual self over the final three-plus quarters of action. If Brees is going to miss more time, they’ll need to find a way to pick things up or their defense is going to find itself tiring out in the way it did on Sunday.Todd Gurley had 69 yards and a touchdown on the ground for the Rams, who saw right guard Austin Blythe and tight end Tyler Higbee leave with injuries during the contest. Gurley had 19 touches this week after getting the ball 15 times in the opener.Goff also threw a touchdown to Brandin Cooks and caught a big break when officials ruled a fumble was an incomplete pass in the second quarter of the game. Cameron Jordan recovered that fumble and returned it for a touchdown, but only the recovery counted because the officials had blown the play dead way too fast.That turned out to be as close as the Saints would come to scoring a touchdown without Brees in the game and that looms much larger than a bad call on the list of reasons why the Saints lost this game.