MINNEAPOLIS – Jay Gibbons homered and drove in three runs and Tony Batista also hit a home run in the Baltimore Orioles’ 7-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

Gibbons hit a two-run shot in the first, a run-scoring single in the sixth and was at the plate when the Orioles took the lead on a wild pitch in the eighth.

Baltimore improved to 3-3 on its nine-game, 10-day road trip and took the first of a three-game series at Minnesota.

Hector Carrasco (1-2) pitched 1 1-3 innings, allowing two hits and one run. Jorge Julio worked the ninth for his 24th save.

Luis Rivas, 2-for-4 with three RBIs, hit a two-run homer in the third for the Twins, who lost their third straight.

Michael Restovich, in his first game since being recalled Monday from Triple-A Rochester, went 2-for-4 with a double for Minnesota. The highly touted prospect scored a run in the seventh to make it 5-5.

But Jeff Conine, who started for the injured B.J. Surhoff, scored on a wild pitch by LaTroy Hawkins (8-3) in the eighth for the go-ahead run. Hawkins, after a long battle with Gibbons, threw a low, inside pitch that bounced away from the plate and allowed Conine to score from third.

Carlos Mendez scored an insurance run in the ninth after Brook Fordyce had a sacrifice bunt and pitcher J.C. Romero made a bad throw to third.

Orioles starter Rick Helling allowed four runs and seven hits in six innings, and lowered his ERA to 6.99 in 12 road starts.

The Orioles jumped on Twins starter Johan Santana early. Conine hit a one-out double to score Luis Matos in the first. Two batters later, Gibbons hit his two-run shot to left center to put Baltimore up 3-0, bringing some boos from the crowd.

Rivas brought the crowd back to life in the third with his 401-foot, two-run shot to left-center pull Minnesota to 3-2.

Rivas made it 4-all in the fifth with a run-scoring single that brought home Chris Gomez.

Gibbons’ single in the sixth scored Matos to put Baltimore up 5-4. The Twins answered in the seventh after Cristian Guzman singled to score Restovich.

Notes: The Orioles are 24-9 against the Twins at the Metrodome and 47-17 overall since 1996. They haven’t lost a season series to Minnesota since 1995. … Baltimore has outscored their opponents 125-88 in the first two innings this season. … Twins OF Shannon Stewart made his first start in left field for the Twins. He made an impressive out in the fourth, running down a pop foul against the wall. … Matos is 4-for-25 on Baltimore’s road trip.

AP-ES-07-29-03 2303EDT