BALTIMORE – Jason Kubel hit his seventh career grand slam, Kevin Slowey took a five-hitter into the seventh inning and the Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles 10-4 Sunday to end a run of four consecutive road series losses.
Kubel's drive off rookie Jake Arrieta (3-3) in the third sparked a surge of 10 straight Minnesota runs. It was his second slam of the season; the other came off New York closer Mariano Rivera in May.
Delmon Young and Jim Thome hit successive solo homers off Mark Hendrickson in the sixth inning for the Twins. Young's homer was his 13th, the second in two games, and Thome's 12th of the season upped his career total to 576.
Thome moved out of a deadlock with Mike Schmidt on the career RBI list and into a tie with George Brett (1,596) for 32nd place.
Jason Repko also connected for the Twins, who finished with 19 hits — including three apiece from Kubel, Danny Valencia, Nick Punto and Alexi Casilla.
Minnesota took three of four from Baltimore to win the season series 5-3. The Twins were 3-9 on the road since winning two of three in Philadelphia from June 18-20.
Slowey (9-5) gave up a run in the first inning, then held Baltimore scoreless on four hits until a rain delay occurred with Matt Wieters leading off the bottom of the seventh. Slowey did not return after the 65-minute stoppage.
Cesar Izturis drove in two runs for the Orioles, who went 2-8 on their first homestand after the All-Star break. Baltimore trailed 10-1 before scoring three in the ninth.
Temperature at game time was 96 degrees. It was 99 on Saturday night, and the fallout from playing in such heat prevented Minnesota's Joe Mauer, Denard Span and J.J. Hardy from starting on Sunday.
"Span's sick, Joe-Joe is a little roasted from last night," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game. "Hardy said that's the most he's ever sweated during a game. We're worried he got dehydrated, so we'll give him a break, too."
The Orioles went up 1-0 in the first inning when Corey Patterson led off with a double, took third on a grounder and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nick Markakis.
Arrieta gave up a hit and a walk in each of the first two innings but managed to keep the Twins scoreless. He was one out away from working out of a bases-loaded situation in the third before Kubel unloaded on a 1-0 pitch.
Arrieta allowed five runs, seven hits and four walks in four innings.
NOTES: Repko's ninth-inning homer was his first since April 26, 2006, with the Dodgers. ... Orioles CF Adam Jones was given the day off, only the second game he's missed this season. ... Young has 58 RBIs since May 21, most in the majors. ... Wieters was activated from the disabled list before the game.
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