The Baltimore Orioles get ready for another road trip soon, but first, a three-game set against the Minnesota Twins must take place.
The Orioles (9-6) come into this series following a series loss to the red hot Milwaukee Brewers. The O’s barely avoided the sweep by taking game three. This extended the regular season streak of not being swept to 96 series in a row.
The Twins are looking to gain some footing of their own, as they have seen themselves fall to fourth in a weak American League Central. However, Their team leader in Carlos Correa will be unavailable this series with an oblique injury.
The Birds will send Cole Irvin to the bump in game one, followed by Grayson Rodriguez and Tyler Wells in games two and three, respectively.
So far, No. 30 has picked up right where he left off last season. Rodriguez has struck out 21 batters in just 18 innings, good for a 2.50 ERA, second on the team behind Corbin Burnes’ 2.28. Regardless of the outcome of game one, having Rodriguez’s arm in game two will be a great reset if it needs to be.
The offense seems to be finding some consistency lately. It has been undoubtedly headlined by Colton Cowser, who has four home runs in the last four games. Cedric Mullins is heating up, which, as we all know, completely changes the dynamic of this offense. Jordan Westburg is also coming in with a hot bat with his three home runs and .855 OPS.
On top of that, Jackson Holliday finally notched his first big league hit, as he looks to truly begin taking off in this series against the Twins. The offense will see three right-handers in Louie Varland, Chris Paddock and Pablo López. Because of this, expect to see a lot of both Holliday and Cowser.
BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR
The BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR for this series is something we have touched on a good bit already. However, we still need to see more of it.
This O’s offense needs to continue to work the opposing team’s starters and get ahead early. The Birds have seven comeback victories already. That’s absolutely fantastic, and call me negative, but it’s unsustainable.
Against the Brewers, the offense did a good job of getting to D.L. Hall early, but they didn’t do as well against the other two Milwaukee starters.
Against a trio of right-handers this set, look to Cowser to continue to annihilate everything and hope he can get something started early and play with a lead. Doing so will obviously help the O’s starters but will also do wonders for the bullpen, which can be used in their most comfortable ways when leading games.
GAME 1 STARTING LINEUP
This series kicks off Monday night at 6:35 p.m. EST. You can catch each game on MASN or on your local Orioles Radio Network station.
How do you see this series playing out? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, Twitter (X) and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
Represent The Baltimore Battery and show off your fandom with our official merchandise! Reasonably-priced attire made just for you! Visit our official shop site by clicking here!
Like Justin’s content? Follow him on X – @orioles4life96
THE BALTIMORE BATTERY 
Leave a comment