MINNEAPOLIS -- Orioles third baseman Manny Machado was dialed in at the plate during Friday's 9-6 loss to the Twins, a welcome sign for a club that has now lost its last five games.
Baltimore jumped out to a six-run advantage in the early going, with Machado paving the way by hitting homers in his first two at-bats. He finished the night with four hits and four RBIs in five trips to the plate, but Minnesota scored nine unanswered runs at Target Field.
Afterward, the only thing that mattered to Machado was the loss, as the club fell to six games below .500.
"We lost, so it doesn't matter," Machado said. "A day like this is not a good day, it was a bad day. Yeah, I hit two homers and drove in a couple runs, but at the end of the day, it's all about the wins."
Machado was the biggest bright spot during the team's fifth loss in as many meetings with the Twins this season. It was the ninth time in his career that he collected at least four hits, and Baltimore has won six of those contests.
And it was evident early that Machado was locked in.
In the first, Machado followed up Seth Smith's leadoff homer with one of his own. He launched a 1-0 fastball to right, which went an estimated 382 feet and had an exit velocity of 104.5 mph, per Statcast™. It was the sixth time this year the O's hit back-to-back blasts, and the first time they did it to start the game since May 20, 2016.

Twins right hander Felix Jorge turned to his off-speed stuff in the third inning, but the result was the same. Machado blasted a 1-0 changeup 386 feet, with an exit velocity of 97.6 mph. It marked the 11th multi-homer game of his career and second this season.
"The fastball was just a fastball that stayed up," Jorge said. "And the changeup, I tried to throw it into the ground, but it obviously stayed up, and he was able to put a good swing on it."
Machado tallied two more hits, both singles, to lead off the fifth and seventh innings. His single in the seventh was actually his hardest and longest hit on the evening. According to Statcast™, it went a projected 405 feet and had an exit velocity of 105.2 mph, almost clearing the right-field wall. Had it found the seats, the O's would have tied the game.
"We just have to keep grinding it out," Machado said. "Things will start turning around, hits will start falling. All we can control is going out there and playing and leaving it all on the field, like we did today."