The Twins beat the Orioles 6-2 Saturday night and they were just 4 outs away from completing the first combined no-hitter in team history.
With 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th inning, reliever Ryan Pressly gave up a sharp single to center to Jonathan Schoop to end the no-hit bid. Pressly had recorded 5 straight outs after relieving Kyle Gibson to start the 7th inning.
Gibson wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t allow hit in 6 innings of work, largely because of a spectacular juggling catch made by Eddie Rosario to end the 6th.
Concentration in the clutch. @EddieRosario09, this is NUTS. pic.twitter.com/yy095LRVZs
— MLB (@MLB) April 1, 2018
Gibson finished with 5 walks and 6 strikeouts on 102 pitches.
Pressly got the first five batters he faced before walking Manny Machado and then giving up the single to Schoop. He came right back, however, to strike out Adam Jones.
The Orioles scored a pair of runs off left-hander Gabriel Moya in the 9th on a 2-run homer by Tim Beckham.
3 homers for the Twins
Offensively, the Twins used the long ball with solo home runs from Miguel Sano, Max Kepler and Jason Castro. The other three runs came via an RBI single by Joe Mauer and a pair of RBI ground-ball outs by Sano.
Twins’ no-hitter history
There have been five no-hitters in Twins history prior to Saturday’s game.
- Jack Kralick – Aug. 26, 1962 vs. Kansas City
- Dean Chance – Aug. 25, 1967 vs. Cleveland
- Scott Erickson – Apr. 27, 1994 vs. Milwaukee
- Eric Milton – Sep. 11, 1999 vs. Anaheim
- Francisco Liriano – May 3, 2011 vs. White Sox
