Brooks Lee struck out in each of his first three at-bats on Thursday, made a critical error in the field and was quickly in an 0-2 hole in his fourth plate appearance. But with a pair of runners on, and two out in tied game, Lee took pitch three for a ball before unleashing on a Gregory Soto fastball to flip the narrative of his day.

The ball traveled nearly 400 feet and Lee settled for a two-run double, one which broke the tie in the eighth inning and helped lift the Twins to a 5-2 victory in the series finale on Thursday afternoon at Target Field. The Twins swept the three-game series and have won a season-high five straight games.

“I felt horrible for the first eight innings, but I picked it up and I knew I was going to do something special,” Lee said. “I got my opportunity and took advantage of it.”

Lee credited teammates Harrison Bader, Byron Buxton and Matt Wallner for giving him encouragement, telling him to keep his head up and stay focused during what had been a difficult game for him. The switch hitter said he didn’t feel great left-handed and was ready for an at-bat from the right side of the plate.

“Every at-bat is a new one,” he said. “That’s what I took into it and that’s what happened.”

Lee’s big swing came after Bailey Ober, working a day earlier than expected because of Joe Ryan’s illness, gritted out a start where nothing seemed to come easy. He was still on normal rest because of Monday’s off day, giving him the day game against the Orioles (13-23) instead of the night game against the San Francisco Giants on Friday that he had been planning on.

The Orioles clogged the bases with at least a runner on for each of his five innings. But they could do little to turn those runners into runs, scoring once in the second and again in the third, an unearned run after Lee’s error.

After each of the first two runners of the fourth inning reached base, Ober got a critical double play. An inning later, the Orioles had a pair of runners in scoring position to begin the fifth and Ober worked around it, letting out a show of excitement as he walked off the mound for the final time.

In his five innings, Ober stranded eight Baltimore runners.

“It was definitely a grindy one. I’m pretty tired right now,” he said. “There was a lot of traffic, and I had to make some pitches when our guys were in scoring position and was able to do so. Luckily, they hit some balls at our guys, and they made some good plays.”

And while he was doing that, the Twins’ (18-20) offense did just enough to keep them in it.

Though Buxton did not have a hit in Thursday’s win, snapping a seven-game hitting streak, his fingerprints were all over the Twins’ win. He drew a leadoff walk to begin the first inning and came around to score on Ty France’s RBI knock — one of two on the day for the first baseman. He scored again on Lee’s hit, and also threw a runner out at the plate in the sixth inning to keep the Orioles’ lead at just one.

“Watching him play the way he is, it’s like you’re watching one of the best players on the planet play in all facets — defense, on the base paths, obviously in the box,” teammate Trevor Larnach said. “He makes it look so easy,

The Twins erased that lead in the bottom of the frame when Larnach blasted his fifth home run of the season, and that tie remained intact until Lee’s big hit innings later.

“That was kind of a dogfight-type of game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “There was not a lot that came easy to us, on either side of the ball. I think it showed a real toughness in a lot of different ways.”