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Byron Buxton is hot, and he’s helping the Minnesota Twins break out of a cold spell.

Buxton and the Twins will look to continue their recent success when they attempt to complete a three-game sweep against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis. The Twins won the series opener 9-1 on Monday and followed that with a 5-2 victory on Tuesday.

A theme in the series has been Buxton’s hot bat.

Buxton ripped a three-run homer on Wednesday, the third game in a row he has gone deep. He hit a solo homer Sunday against the Boston Red Sox, then belted a three-run shot Tuesday against Baltimore.

“He’s quite dynamic,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, whose team has won four straight games immediately following a four-game skid. “When he hits the ball at that good angle, and we’ve seen a bunch of them, the balls just keep going. They’re not scraping walls or anything like that.

“When his timing is good and he’s staying through the ball well, which he is right now, that’s what you see. We reap the benefits of that. We end up winning games because of that.”

Meanwhile, the Orioles are struggling to find a similar spark at the plate.

Baltimore will try to halt a four-game losing streak Thursday. The Orioles have been outscored 29-9 during that stretch, and they have lost 22 of 35 games to start the season.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said part of the problem has been the team’s hitting with runners in scoring position. Baltimore left six runners on base Wednesday night.

“We didn’t get a clutch hit in a big spot,” Hyde said. “I thought that we had some good at-bats (Wednesday). It was good to see us use the whole field a couple times. We need to do more of that.”

Hyde said too many players are slumping at the same time.

“It’s been going on for a while,” he said. “If you look at our offensive numbers, we’ve got a lot of guys struggling or not being where they hoped they’d be.”

The Twins were looking for Joe Ryan to attempt to keep the Orioles from breaking out at the plate on Thursday, but the right-hander was scratched from his scheduled start due to an illness. The team announced after Wednesday’s game that righty Bailey Ober would move up in the rotation to start the series finale.

Ober (4-1, 3.72 ERA) has won each of his past four starts, compiling a 2.08 ERA, 19 strikeouts and two walks in 26 innings during that span. Most recently, he fired six innings of one-run ball in a win over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.

In three career outings against Baltimore, Ober is 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA.

The Orioles will counter with Dean Kremer (3-4, 5.73 ERA). The right-hander is coming off his best start of the season, having tossed seven scoreless innings against the Kansas City Royals on Friday.

Kremer has lost each of his two career outings against the Twins, giving up 12 runs on 13 hits in seven innings.

–Field Level Media