Orioles ambush Louie Varland in Twins’ loss
BALTIMORE — As Cedric Mullins trotted around the bases, Louie Varland paced. And paced.
And then he appeared to yell angrily into his glove. Varland’s frustration simmered over after Mullins got ahold of a 2-1 cutter and sent it out into right field for a two-run home run. Those two runs were the fifth and sixth Varland gave up in his five innings as part of the Twins’ 7-4 loss to Baltimore on Monday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
“It was moreso just letting the team down,” Varland said of the frustration.
It was a difficult day — particularly with two strikes — from the outset for Varland against one of baseball’s best lineups, and he was hurt early by the Twins’ infield defense when Edouard Julien was unable to turn what should have been an inning-ending double play in the first inning.
That kept the inning alive long enough for the Orioles (10-6) to put a couple of runs on the board on a Jordan Westburg double that came with two strikes. Baltimore tacked on another pair of runs in the third inning off Varland, and they added two more on Mullins’ big swing two innings later.
“Not leaving the zone with two strikes is an issue right now,” Varland said. “I need to be better at it. I’m letting the team down, and it’s a bad feeling.”
For Varland, it was the second straight start that he has given up six runs. To date this season, the St. Paulite has allowed 13 earned runs in 14 innings over three starts.
But despite the results, the Twins have been pleased with his stuff — it’s more a matter of his execution.
“Lou’s stuff was good tonight. I think he had actually pretty good feel for what he was doing. He threw the ball well, and that’s why it can be frustrating,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s multiple starts in a row where he threw the ball reasonably well but needs to make better pitches when he gets to two strikes. Those pitches that are in the middle of the zone, those are not quality pitches.”
The Twins (6-9) would never recover from the hole they fell into, despite the efforts of Ryan Jeffers and Jose Miranda, each of whom went 3 for 4 with a pair of runs batted in.
Miranda, who was recalled earlier this month from Triple-A, hit his first major league home run since last April in the second inning and later drove in Byron Buxton in the fourth in a game he called “super important,” for himself.
Jeffers, meanwhile, hit a pair of doubles, including one in the seventh inning that brought home two runs. The catcher was also left stranded on second base in the first inning when Mullins made a highlight reel diving play to rob Kyle Farmer of extra bases and an RBI that would have given the Twins an early lead.
“Mullins making that play in center field, it’s a big moment. That ball is smoked,” Baldelli said. “It’s as hard as Kyle’s going to hit a ball in that gap, and he covered and really made up a lot of ground late. … If we get on the board, you really don’t know what’s going to happen.”
But instead, Mullins played hero on both sides of the ball for Baltimore, helping send the Twins to their second straight loss.
