Twins 1, Guardians 0: Bailey Ober Crushes Cleveland on Apple TV... Again

[Matt Braun]

Two command wizards faced-off on Friday, eschewing modern velocity and hip sweepers for classic control and off-putting sequencing. Bailey Ober came out on top.

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Bailey Ober: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Home Runs: None
Top 3 WPA: Bailey Ober (.346), Jhoan Duran (.320), Jorge Polanco (.163)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The MLB world celebrated a special occasion on Friday: Lou Gehrig day. The legendary Hall-of-Famer started his famous, once unbreakable record streak of 2,130 straight games played on June 2nd; he also tragically passed away due to ALS on the same day, at just 37 years old. The giver of perhaps the greatest speech this side of Lincoln, Gehrig’s influence on American culture and society is unmatched, incomparable. Even 100 years after his first taste of MLB, Gehrig’s spirit alters the sport.

It was about as standard of a Bailey Ober outing you could imagine; the elongated righty diced through the Guardians lineup, matching sky-scraping fastballs with diving breakers, eliciting plenty of balls his defense turned into outs. He struck out three while allowing just four hits.

But Aaron Civale—freshly removed from the IL—was just as effective, matching Ober blow-for-blow. Civale prefers a different style of pitching—one based on his cutter stunning batters as they search their mind to better understand his plethora of pitches. Minnesota seriously threatened to score twice, but their great enemy, the bases-loaded, tempered odds in the first, and their fourth frame rally died via natural causes (a Kyle Farmer soft line drive.)

With no score after six, the onus turned to the bullpen to decide the game.

The two teams fired scoreless sixths towards each other before the Twins started yet more action in the seventh. Ryan Jeffers cracked a double and Kyle Farmer walked, setting up two runners on base for the back of the lineup. Michael A. Taylor swapped the runners with a fielder’s choice before Jorge Polanco finally broke the stalemate, blasting a thunderous double off the high wall in right field, scoring the first run of the game.

Brock Stewart continued his work from the seventh, extending his effort beyond a one-out “save-me” call by Rocco Baldelli to potentially carry the eighth as well. He faltered a little. A double—aided by some clumsiness by Taylor in center—placed Steven Kwan at second; Stewart’s next out proved to be his last.

And in entered the big, bad, fire breathing, lightning-throwing, final boss of Minnesota’s bullpen: Jhoan Duran. Five more outs were needed; Baldelli did not care.

José Ramírez exited following a silly swing at a splitter off the plate, and while Josh Naylor reached first on a walk, Andrés Giménez could do little more than mimic a heat sick grandmother waiting for the Fourth of July parade to start, fanning with such authority that the first row felt instantly cooled. 

But no mercy was to be had for those swinging a bat with a “C” on their helmet. Duran melted more faces—allowing a single to Myles Straw along the way—on his way to securing the last few outs Minnesota needed to win. 

And really, what are you supposed to do? Humans shouldn’t be able to control 105 MPH fastballs, and Duran’s breaking ball command means that any cheating on the heater will result in a center-stage performance on Pitching Ninja and MLB Network. All you can do is laugh.

Notes:

Bailey Ober's career ERA against Cleveland now sits at 1.42.

Tonight was Jhoan Durán's fourth outing of 2023 that lasted more than one inning; he had 14 such appearances last season.

Jovani Moran's last earned run came on May 13th against the Cubs.

Ryan Jeffers is slashing .375/.444/.688 in his last seven games. 

Post-Game Interview:

What’s Next?
Minnesota and Cleveland will play the third game of the series on Saturday. Fox has the game and first pitch is at 6:15 PM; Sonny Gray will start opposite the other Logan Allen.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

View full article

[CoastiePilot08]

Why is Kepler on the team?

[ashbury]

2 minutes ago, CoastiePilot08 said:

Why is Kepler on the team?

According to Wikipedia "he signed with the Twins in 2009 for US$800,000, the largest signing bonus given by an MLB franchise to a European-born player."  That's why.

[blindeke]

A most excellent game story, sir. You have outdone yourself!

[darwin22]

Call me an old f*rt---I am-------but NOT being able to watch Ober's excellent performance, Moran and Stewart pitching well and Duran SLAMMING the door on the Guardians was disappointing.  

Paying a fair amount of $$ for MLB baseball package thr DirecTV, in my OLD MAN world should've allowed me the chance to watch the game.

Anyway, a GREAT W with our big bats (insert laugh track here) missing--Correa, Buxton and Gallo, it was satisfying to see the Twins record their 4th shutout (2nd over CLE) victory this year.

Did anyone notice that with the "big 3" out tonight that our hitters whiffed only 7 times?  Correa & Gallo accounted for 5 K's last night.

Time for Sonny Gray to build on his last start (1st stat of 6 IP since April 30th) tomorrow by harnessing his command and getting through 7 quality innings.  With Duran (26 pitches) and Stewart (15) likely being unavailable tomorrow, who will Baldelli turn to in likely another low scoring game? re

 

 

 

 

 

[stringer bell]

Nice game story. Nice game. Tough lefty tomorrow vs. the undefeated Sonny Gray.  As the commercial says “let’s get it!”

[MplsFan]

Fun game but to me it really showed the need for some bullpen help.  I thought Rocco managed it well bringing in Duran to face Ramirez and Naylor in the 8th.  That’s what I’d want him to do: bring in Duran to put out the fire at the critical time.  
 

But if Duran had pitched the night before, who gets the 9th?  Lopez would be nerve-wracking.  I wouldn’t want to see Jax there.  Stewart had already been used.  I’d like to see de Leon get some higher leverage opportunities to see what he has, I suppose.

Speaking of Duran: that was amazing.  Couldn’t throw any of his off speed stuff for strikes but it didn’t seem to matter when he can almost hit 105.  Ramirez was trying to time it and even sitting fastball could only barely get a bat on it (though Dontrelle Willis said “he’s right on it”).  Gimenez had zero hope to catch up to it.  So impressive..

[jkcarew]

21 minutes ago, CoastiePilot08 said:

Why is Kepler on the team?

You mean the guy that would have had the game-winning RBI in the first inning, but his 2-out single to RF was hit TOO HARD to score Kirilloff from second? That guy? The guy whose hit was one of only 6 for the entire club?

What was it about Kepler’s performance tonight that you didn’t like?

[Blyleven2011]

Nice pitched game ,  Ober please stay healthy  your needed in the rotation  ...

Hitters , 6 hits  , 3 walks but only 7 strikeouts  ,  1 run is all we needed and Polanco  delivered ...

Pitching does win games ...

Winning streak of 3 , let's go for 10 or more  ...

[CoastiePilot08]

34 minutes ago, ashbury said:

According to Wikipedia "he signed with the Twins in 2009 for US$800,000, the largest signing bonus given by an MLB franchise to a European-born player."  That's why.

Oh cool thanks 

[CoastiePilot08]

3 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

You mean the guy that would have had the game-winning RBI in the first inning, but his 2-out single to RF was hit TOO HARD to score Kirilloff from second? That guy? The guy whose hit was one of only 6 for the entire club?

What was it about Kepler’s performance tonight that you didn’t like?

It’s not about tonight. It’s the body of work. He’s batting .200. 
 

What is it about Wallner or Larnach that you don’t like?

[jkcarew]

20 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

Did anyone notice that with the "big 3" out tonight that our hitters whiffed only 7 times?  Correa & Gallo accounted for 5 K's last night.

And if not, did anyone notice that our hitters only scored one run?

[jkcarew]

1 minute ago, CoastiePilot08 said:

It’s not about tonight. It’s the body of work. He’s batting .200. 
 

What is about Wallner or Larnach that you don’t like?

There are other places to post about the players you don’t like or that you think are hurting the club. That way, you can be taken seriously rather than randomly complaining in a game recap where said player played well, where you won’t.

[DocBauer]

After reading this OP, and reflecting on past performance,  I have decided that Duran will no longer be referred to by that name, only for simple reporting stake. 

Henceforth, his name will be Drago. For he is a fire spitting dragon of an arm that deserves a special moniker all to his own.

All hail Drago!

[jimbo92107]

Hey Matt, that's some good writing, buddy! Looks like you followed writer's rule number one: If you had fun writing it, folks will have fun reading it.

I was busy today, so I saw only bits of the game. Looked like a couple good pitchers out there. I wanna see more of Ober, so I'll wait for the compressed games to show up in the Video section. 

Meanwhile, is it really possible that this Twins squad needs to bring up its one gleaming blue chipper for this team to click offensively? Brooks Lee is kicking ass in AA right now, but let nobody suppose his transition to the Show will be particularly difficult. His DNA was carefully calculated to produce a baseball player. It's just science. 

They should bring up Wallner, too. Hometown Boy story will not be delayed much longer. Who doesn't want to see the fun when baserunners challenge that bazooka arm? It's not that I don't think Max Kepler has some pretty good ball left in him, but Kep's biggest year was the one with the juiced baseball. Wallner could match those totals with a regular ball. Kepler's defense is superb, but his offense has fallen off too much to keep him around. Maybe he can refresh his career with a new team. Twins need to aim higher than Max can take them.

[Jocko87]

This was one where I will quibble with Rocco a bit on pulling Ober. He didn't seem to be struggling, low pitch count and the bottom of the order coming up it seems that starting the 7th would be reasonable. The outcome would likely have been the same using one less reliever.  If he does the same thing Moran did, pull him then.

[stringer bell]

I wanted to point out that Jeffers had another strong game. He did not score the run, but it was his double that set up the inning. 
 

Good offensive numbers so far and a good receiver. The running game hasn’t killed the Twins as I feared. Vázquez has had a couple of good game recently, as well. 

[Boswell]

Yep, hard to understand why you need to pull the starter after 6 IP and 78 pitches.  

[SwainZag]

1 hour ago, Boswell said:

Yep, hard to understand why you need to pull the starter after 6 IP and 78 pitches.  

Does it matter?  The bullpen was lights out, the Twins eventually scored and they won the game.  

[SwainZag]

A win is a win.  Twins win a 7-6 game and more than half the posters want to talk about how Buck and Correa going out with injuries helped the lineup.  

1-0 win and there's no talk about how maybe they needed some more bats to get some more runs across.

It's a long ass season.  I know 7 and 10 game streaks are great to rave about.   May 16th, Castro was hitting .190 and was the number one DFA candidate.  Fast forward, now he's the MVP.    

1 comment out of 20  even mentioned Jorge.  He had a pretty damn large game winning hi...with 2 outs BTW.  I know Polanco isn't a sexy name like Kiriloff, Lewis or Wallner.....but a "grizzled" 29 year old vet can get it done sometimes too.

That's 3 in a row.  That's 4 out of 5.  That's a lead of 5.5 over Cleveland....(who IMO is miles better than Detroit).  Tomorrow is Gray day!

[UK Twin]

Duran is a monster. He throws 25 pitches and still cranks it up to 104.6! When was the last time he gave up a run? 

Twins need to be aggressive in the reliever trade market. There will be plenty of options and you can't have enough bullpen arms. 

Anyway, turning into a good week for the Twins. 4 wins out of 5 and with Gray and Ryan on the mound Saturday and Sunday a decent chance of a series win.

[UK Twin]

4 hours ago, CoastiePilot08 said:

It’s not about tonight. It’s the body of work. He’s batting .200. 
 

What is it about Wallner or Larnach that you don’t like?

Defense. Kepler is a much more accomplished OF than those two. And I don't think either Wallner or Larnach are good enough hitters to justify them being in the line up every day ahead of Kepler. 

[Peter]

Huge nerve wracking win!!! Up lead to 3.5 over Detroit and 5.5 over Cleveland!!! With gray and Ryan we have fewer chance of sweeping Cleveland/blue this division open!!! Go twins!!!

[nclahammer]

These Apple TV games..."you're killin' me smalls."  If the Minnesota Twins win, but you're not able to watch it, does it still count?   Somebody please find one consistent place for me to watch my favortie team play.

[big dog]

7 hours ago, DocBauer said:

After reading this OP, and reflecting on past performance,  I have decided that Duran will no longer be referred to by that name, only for simple reporting stake. 

Henceforth, his name will be Drago. For he is a fire spitting dragon of an arm that deserves a special moniker all to his own.

All hail Drago!

No kidding! Where has this been??? Genius!

Dra-GO! Dra-GO! Dr-GO!

[wabene]

To all those "old guys" out there who want to watch these broadcasts, if your here you are on some type of computer and most of the way there. In about 3 minutes you can go to BestBuy.com and easily aquire a free 3 month trial of Apple TV. 

[wabene]

4 hours ago, Boswell said:

Yep, hard to understand why you need to pull the starter after 6 IP and 78 pitches.  

This is the point where, again, someone has to point out Bailey Ober's injury history and amount of innings he's pitched each year in his career and that maybe you might want these kind of performances from him late in the season and the playoffs etc blah blah blah

[Major League Ready]

8 hours ago, darwin22 said:

Time for Sonny Gray to build on his last start (1st stat of 6 IP since April 30th) tomorrow by harnessing his command and getting through 7 quality innings.  With Duran (26 pitches) and Stewart (15) likely being unavailable tomorrow, who will Baldelli turn to in likely another low scoring game? re

 

 

 

 

 

I think I heard they were going to activate Thielbar today.  Stewart could go two days in a row.  Of course, they have Jax and Lopez.  Jax has been quite unlucky.  I think he will be fine.  

[Nashvilletwin]

 I signed up for AppleTV to watch Ted Lasso. Watched the first season and half of the second when I got bored.  Too lazy to cancel it, so I get to watch the odd Twins games now.

My two big observations from last night:

1. Royce was flashing the leather at 3rd base. He looked comfortable and capable.  Lee to 2nd base in ‘24?

2. It took a couple of injuries to get the FO to get Ober and Varland into the rotation.  Had Mahle and Maeda not been hurt, we’d still be seeing each of them every five games no matter how they were pitching. Ober and Varland are now not only performing at a high level, but are also building confidence and experience that will be useful later this season and beyond (and they will be super cheap for years). But it took a couple of “accidents” to get our FO to put our best pitching starter lineup on the field.  Credit to Rocco to be giving Jeffers more time over the more expensive Vasquez right now as Jeffers builds his confidence. Meanwhile, our hottest hitting MLB capable player toils away in AAA.

Two great one run wins in a row. Now is the time to make a statement to the Guardians. Let’s bury those guys this weekend behind Gray and Ryan!

[tony&rodney]

Notes: Easy to sign up for Apple TV free trial. Don't care at all for the either the announcers or camera work from Apple TV. 

Good game with some nice defense and pitching. The batters worked too, just hard to score runs.

Ober was really good but the guys coming up had had the best swings and his control was fading ever so slightly. Baldelli made the correct calls and the relievers performed excellently.

Someone mentioned Brooks Lee. I have seen quite a few of his at bats. He can play shortstop but is in no way ready to face MLB pitchers. He also is not going to replace any of Lewis, Correa, or Polanco and Castro is a better option for utility due to speed. Maybe 2024 or 2025.

Kepler has struggled but the guy can still play. He gets another month or so. Maybe Gallo gets the IL and Wallner or Larnach have another opportunity. Still would like to see the Twins go with twelve pitchers but know it won't happen.

Gray and Ryan could be good matchups to get quick outs in the next two games but baseball is always a challenge from at bat to at bat and inning to inning. The pitching and depth have the Twins in a decent spot in early June. They are only nine games back of Tampa Bay and the offense has yet to perform consistently. 

The Twins are trending up ..... today.