Bailey Ober’s strong start leads Twins to win over Blue Jays
Final
Starting pitcher performance
Bailey Ober turned in his third consecutive quality start, limiting the Blue Jays to just one run in six-plus innings pitched. That one run came on a Daulton Varsho home run in the third inning, but otherwise, Ober limited the Blue Jays (14-17) to just four hits in his outing.
Ober allowed a single to lead off the seventh inning, at which point he was replaced after yet another strong performance.
“Just mixing, using all my pitches, keeping guys off balance,” Ober said when asked about his success Thursday night. “Seeing when hitters are starting to flip their approach the second, third time through, being able to use the fastball to surprise guys late in the game even with lower velo. … Being able to read hitters and in-game situations, I give a lot of credit to (catcher Ryan) Jeffers being able to do that and being on the same page as me.”
Player of the Game
Ober’s start laid the foundation for the Twins’ win, which bumped them to 14-18 on the season. Behind him, it was a strong day for the Twins’ bullpen, from Anthony Banda , who recorded a pair of outs, to rookie Andrew Morris, who entered in the middle of an inning for the first time in his career and got out of a big situation in the seventh inning, to Justin Topa , who threw a scoreless ninth.
“Bailey Ober — I mean it starts and stops there,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I don’t know the actual stats but I mean what’d he face 24, 25 hitters and a ton of first-pitch strikes. Kept them off balance. “This is a really good club and he did a really good job of mixing and matching and not a lot of hard contact. I thought he did an outstanding job.
Key moment
After Varsho homered in the top of the fourth inning to give Toronto the lead, Trevor Larnach drew a walk to extend his on-base streak to 16. He then came around to score on Ryan Jeffers ’ fourth home run of the season, a 404-foot blast to left-center field to give the Twins a lead they would hold the rest of the night.
All told, the Twins scored four runs off Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman , a pitcher whom they historically hit well. Byron Buxton , who finished the day with three hits, also hit a home run off Gausman.
Quotable
With the Twins up 4-1, Morris got designated hitter George Springer to hit a ball back to him but he immediately looked towards second before retiring Springer at first to end the inning.
“That was first time ever,” Morris said of entering mid-inning. “I forgot how many outs there were, too. That was pretty good.”
Up next
Simeon Woods Richardson (0-4, 6.30 ERA) will start on Friday night against the Blue Jays. Toronto will counter with Patrick Corbin (0-0, 3.72 ERA). The two faced off earlier this season with Woods Richardson, who was dealing with food poisoning at the time, giving up five runs in four innings against the Jays and Corbin allowing four in four innings.
