Kevin Gausman had pitched a total of nine innings, allowing 12 hits and six runs in his previous two starts. But he took a step forward today. He took a shutout into the sixth and gave up four earned runs over a career-high 7 1/3 innings against Minnesota as the Twins won 6-4. "Thought I threw the ball where I wanted to," Gausman said. "A lot of their hitters are down hitters, so I think fastball up was a big pitch for me today. It (stinks) that I walked the leadoff guy in the eighth inning. That came back to bite us. I thought maybe he went around and it should have been a called strike, but that's baseball. "I feel good. I feel good physically and my arm feels great. Right now just trying to be more consistent than anything." The Orioles lost the series finale after taking the first three games. "Any time you win a series, especially this time of year it is huge," Gausman said. "Obviously, we wanted to get the sweep. Have another good team coming in and hopefully we get that series too." Gausman blanked the Twins on 59 pitches through five innings. Catcher Nick Hundley talked about his outing this afternoon.

"He threw the ball great," Hundley said. "It's a good fastball-hitting lineup. And he challenge them and threw the ball where he wanted to with his good fastball. That's the Kevin Gausman we know and that is going to pitch well for us down the stretch." Down 3-0 in the seventh, Hundley brought the crowd to its feet when he hit a 2-2 pitch for a game-tying three-run homer off Phil Hughes. It was his first game-tying homer of the year and fifth of his career. "Phil has had a good year and his fastball is tough to square up," Hundley said. "Got a cutter inside. He had been throwing it really well. That one he kind of left out over the plate and fortunately I didn't miss it. With our lineup we have guys up and down the lineup that can do damage and we're never out of a game." Chris Davis, who has played several games at third base, was asked about the tough day Jimmy Paredes had at the hot corner. He made one error and another play he didn't make was scored as a basehit. "The first one, the line drive, you either get that ball or you don't," Davis said. "The second is a tough play when a left-hander squares the ball up and you're playing in right there, not a lot you can do. Even though that happened we still had a chance to win the game." Davis felt Gausman had a strong game. "He threw the ball really well, I think that is what we wanted to see out of him," Davis said. "You want to see him get the win, but everything I saw out of him was good. That is a good lineup that he went through. His command was good, he was mixing his pitches and I thought he had great tempo." So the Orioles don't get a four-game sweep, but they are 6-2 on this homestand. They started the month of September with a nine-game lead and a magic number of 19 to win the American League East. "Getting three out of four is big. Hard to sweep, especially a four-game series," Davis said. "We battled back and gave ourselves a chance to get the W. "But we also understand this division every year is close coming down the stretch. We can't sit on this lead. Every win is important."