Chen And Orioles Lose To Twins 6-1
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Wei-Yin Chen was unhappy with his outing, losing for the first time in a month.
Joe Mauer and Brian Dozier homered, Kevin Correia earned his first win of the season, and the Minnesota Twins beat Baltimore 6-1 Saturday to end the Orioles' three-game winning streak.
"I tried to make a good pitch to get hitters out and I couldn't do it like in my previous outing," Chen said through an interpreter. "So I was kind of having trouble, that's what happens out there."
Chen (3-2) allowed three runs -- two earned -- and six hits in five innings-plus. He was removed after his 108th pitch, when he walked Jason Kubel starting the sixth.
Chen had been 3-0 with a 3.86 ERA since losing his opening start to Boston on April 4. But he has allowed 45 hits in 34 innings this season, and opposing batters are hitting .317 against him.
"Take my last start, for example," he said, recalling a no-decision against Kansas City. "My slider was working well in that game, so the hitters had something more to think about. My slider wasn't that good today, so the hitter has one less pitch to worry about, which it makes it easier to handle my other pitches."
Mauer had three hits and four RBIs, hitting a three-run homer off Brad Brach that broke open the game.
Dozier's eighth homer, a solo shot in the third, gave the Twins the lead for good.
Correia (1-3) gave up one run and five hits in seven innings, retiring 13 of his final 14 batters. He had been 0-6 in nine starts since winning at Texas on Sept. 1.
"Now with scouting reports and as much TV as we get to watch, we kind of know what all pitchers are doing or going to be trying to do, and he just executed really well today," said J.J. Hardy, who had two hits and Baltimore's lone RBI.
Adam Jones scored Baltimore's only run on Hardy's second-inning single after reaching on wild pitch as he struck out.
Minnesota took a 2-1 lead when Dozier led off the third, fouled off three pitches and hit a full-count fastball into the left-field seats. Dozier scored again in the fifth on Mauer's RBI single.
Both teams entered this three-game with tired arms after doubleheaders Thursday.
"It affects you sometime for a week," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "It forces you to sometimes put people in places where they normally wouldn't be pitching in."
NOTES: Injured Orioles slugger Chris Davis did some work on the field before the game and Showalter said Davis did not feel any discomfort in his strained left oblique. ... Showalter plans to get a look at LHP Johan Santana next week in extended spring training before the team begins a series with Tampa Bay. Santana was supposed to make his spring training debut in Sarasota, Florida, on Saturday, but the game was rained out. The two-time AL Cy Young winner, recovering from his second shoulder operation, is expected to throw Monday instead. "It's still a little early, but he's had no setbacks and his velocity's inching up," Showalter said. ... The teams finish their three-game series Sunday when RHP Miguel Gonzalez (1-2) makes his sixth start of the season for Baltimore. Minnesota's Phil Hughes (2-1) will try for his third straight win.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
