Another rough start from the Bearded Nightmare leads to an even series.
The Twins seem to think that sending a hipless Bailey Ober out to die every five days is a viable strategy for an organization attempting to return to .500. Once again, it didn’t work out, and Minnesota got shellacked to the tune of a 10-5 Tiger victory.
The Tigers got the scoring started today, with Spencer Torkelson doubling to lead off the second and scoring on a Matt Vierling sacrifice fly. Thankfully, it was the second inning and not the recently-troublesome third for starter Bailey Ober; it was also a single run and not the recently-troublesome seventy-gajillion.
But that’s okay. With a man on in the third, Byron Buxton elected to thumb his nose at the AL All-Star outfield finalists, by mashing a splitter in the zone for a go-ahead two-run shot, his 19th dinger of the year. Already enjoying a three-win season halfway through the set, Buxton is well on his way to smashing his career-high of 28 homers (in his 2022 All-Star season) and should also break his own single-season WAR best (5.0 bWAR, 2017) as long as he stays healthy.
The Tigers, it can be argued, have a couple of good players themselves. One of them is a guy named Kerry Carpenter, who evened the score in the home half of the third with a moonshot solo job into right field.
It risked becoming the recently-signature turning point for Bailey, who let the next two Tigers reach with two outs and found himself facing Wenceel Perez (and his then-.946 OPS) with runners at the corners. Ober would induce a swinging strikeout to keep the game tied, but Detroit would enter the fourth having already doubled Minnesota’s hits on the day.
The Kitties kept the pressure on in the fourth, getting their first two runners on and bunting them over so Colt Keith could take a crack at knocking in a pair with one swing. He’d get half that job done; another sacrifice fly would get the second out on the board for the Twins, but bring Detroit ahead by a run.
The bleeding, unfortunately, could not be stopped this time. Gleyber Torres rocked a two-run blast to deep left-center, and just like that, it was 5-2 Tigers.
The Twins did Bailey no favors in the fifth. After watching their starter labor through the fourth inning, they went down 1-2-3 on only a handful of pitches, requiring Ober to trot right back out onto the mound and cough up a leadoff two-strike homer to Riley Greene.
And then, more fuel for the “what the hell is Bailey Ober doing out here if him hips ain’t healthy” fire — another leadoff homer in the sixth, this time from Zach McKinstry. A game that the Twins had led early was now a 7-2 Detroit lead, and Ober’s final line included 5.2 innings, 11 hits, 7 earned runs, one walk, and four homers. I’m not sure what the justification is for the notion that we are currently sending our best and brightest.
On the contrary, Casey Mize settled well down after allowing the homer to Buck; he’d keep his pitch count under 100 through 6.2 innings in front of the Tiger faithful, and the Twins would not score off him outside of a single swing. He’d leave things up to the bullpen after walking Matt Wallner with two gone in the seventh.
The Tigers added a run with another sac fly, this time off Joey Wentz; while the Twins wouldn’t score again off Mize, they would claw back a bit with a two-run jolt from Carlos Correa, who made it an 8-4 game on an eighth-inning jack off Tommy Kahnle (his only hit of the afternoon.)
Detroit, meanwhile, would load up on a couple of those “who even cares?” runs and chase Wentz in favor of Cole Sands in the eighth. Their 10-4 lead was trimmed to 10-5 in the ninth (Brooks Lee doubled and scored) but at no point since Bailey had left the game did the Twins play as though they had a chance at this one.
It’s just one game, and it only ties the series, but it’s the latest in a string of horrendous starts for Bailey Ober, whose practicality as a major-league starter during his mysterious hip non-injury is being called into serious question.
The Twins and Tigers engage in a little Sunday Night Baseball tomorrow — the winner takes the series ahead of Minnesota’s Monday off-day. Hope to see you then!
STUDS:
DH Byron Buxton (3-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR)
DUDS:
SP Bailey Ober (5.2 IP, 11 H, 7 ER, BB, 5 K, 4 HR)
RP Joey Wentz (1.2 IP, 3 ER, 4 BB, K)
2B Willi Castro (0-for-4, 3 K)