— Minnesota Twins starter Francisco Liriano allowed three total runs in all of April. He didn't allow a run in three straight outings and he was just one start removed from a stretch of 23 consecutive scoreless innings. Plus, he is left-handed.
He was about the last guy you'd predict to allow the Orioles' long-awaited offensive breakthrough.
The Orioles got production from their leadoff spot, eight hits in 16 at-bats with runners in scoring position and six two-out hits — three things that have been missing all season — in beating Liriano and the Twins, 7-3, before an announced 38,608 in Game 1 of the day/night doubleheader Saturday at Target Field.
Kevin Millwood will take the ball in the nightcap, looking to pitch the Orioles (10-21) to a doubleheader sweep and their third straight victory.
He'll have a solid act to follow as Jeremy Guthrie allowed three runs and five hits in 6 2/3 innings to beat the Twins, and pick up his first victory since Sept. 6 of last year.
"I strive to go out there and help our team win each time and it's nice to be able to contribute in the win," said Guthrie, who had lost eight straight decisions, including four this season. "We got a lot of hits. I don't remember them all, but those are big-time things against a great pitcher that had been in a groove. So, it speaks volumes about our hitters today and that's the reason we won this game."
Guthrie, who allowed a two-run homer to Justin Morneau in the first inning and a solo shot to Michael Cuddyer in the fourth, had gotten just 11 runs of support while he had been on the mound during his first six starts.
But the Orioles scored two runs in the third inning on Nick Markakis' RBI single, and three more in the fifth off Liriano, who entered the game 4-0 with a 1.50 ERA, but allowed five earned runs and 10 hits over six innings Saturday.
The Orioles tacked on two more against the Twins' bullpen with Ty Wigginton hitting an RBI double in the seventh and Adam Jones dropping in a broken-bat, bloop RBI single in the eighth. The Orioles scored six of their seven runs with two outs.
In doing so, they improved to 2-8 against left-handed starters this season. They certainly didn't hit too many balls hard against Liriano, but they repeatedly found holes, a welcome change for a team which has been complaining about hard luck offensively all season.
"I remember managing against [Liriano] when he was in Triple-A and I bunted off him in the first inning because we weren't going to get a whole lot of runs off him," said Orioles manager Dave Trembley. "He's very tough, but sometimes you have to find a way and sometimes the breaks got to go your way. They did today. We've been hitting a lot of balls on the button and they're not falling in. We got some balls today that didn't exactly look pretty, but they gave us good results."
Trembley's decision to finally remove Jones from the leadoff slot, and insert second baseman Julio Lugo there, paid immediate dividends as Lugo went 3-for-5 with an RBI. That made him 7-for-13 over his past three starts heading into the second game of the doubleheader, where he was again hitting leadoff.
"I've always hit. I'm a good hitter," said Lugo, who the Orioles acquired late in spring training from the St. Louis Cardinals. "It's just a matter of time. You have to get your timing and I've been working. When I came here from St. Louis, there were just too many things going on for me."
While Lugo was the catalyst, Trembley credited Markakis with getting the game's biggest hit with the two-run, two-strike single in the third after Jones popped out with the bases loaded for the second out.
Markakis then added an RBI single in the Orioles' three-run fourth, one of four consecutive singles off Liriano. Jones and shortstop Cesar Izturis also had two for the Orioles, and Izturis drove in a run and scored three times.
"[He was] 4-0, you look at his ERA, you knew he's on top of his game," Markakis said. "To come out and score that many runs off of him, it's a good sign for the team."
It was also a relief for Guthrie, who hasn't had a multi-run lead to work with too often this year. Cuddyer's solo homer in the fourth cut the Orioles' lead to 5-3, but the Twins got no closer.
Guthrie retired 11 of the final 13 hitters that he faced. Will Ohman got the final out of the seventh and secured a scoreless eighth when Jim Thome bounced into a double play. Koji Uehara then allowed one hit in a scoreless ninth.