Rangers 16, Twins 3: Twins Blasted by Rangers Again, Drop Fourth Series in Five

[Matthew Taylor]

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober 4.2 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 6 BB, 3 K (98 pitches, 51 strikes (52%))
Home Runs: None
Bottom 3 WPA: Ober (-.439), France (-.065), Castro (-.045)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Twins looked to build momentum off a big win on Wednesday night, but instead, they were shelled for the second time in three days by the visiting Texas Rangers, falling 16-3 in Thursday's series finale at Target Field.

Bailey Ober took the mound for Minnesota, but continued his recent spiral. From the first batter, it was clear things weren’t going to come easy. Rangers shortstop Josh Smith jumped on Ober and sent it out to right field for a leadoff home run. The Twins briefly answered back in the bottom half with a Carlos Correa RBI single that brought in Byron Buxton to tie things at 1-1, but the good vibes stopped there.

Ober unraveled in the second inning, in what may have been the ugliest outing of his big-league career. He threw 35 pitches in the frame, but only 10 were strikes. Three walks, two home runs, and five earned runs later, the Twins were facing a steep uphill climb. Jake Burger and Wyatt Langford each went deep, and by the time the inning ended, the Rangers were in control 6-1.

Ober gave up a fourth home run in the fifth inning, this one off the bat of Evan Carter. He exited after 4 2/3 innings, having allowed six earned runs on four homers and six walks. For a pitcher known for his command and poise, it was another confounding outing in a stretch that’s quickly becoming a concern—one that is especially worrisome given all of the uncertainty in the Twins rotation, in the wake of the injury to Pablo López and the unreliability of Simeon Woods Richardson.

The bullpen didn’t offer any relief. Cole Sands and newly acquired lefty Joey Wentz each threw one inning and each got tagged hard. Sands allowed four runs on four hits, while Wentz surrendered a three-run homer to Adolis García that officially turned the game into a rout. By the time Jonah Bride jogged in from third base to pitch the final two frames (his third appearance in eight days), the game had long since shifted into damage control mode. Bride gave up a three-run homer of his own, for good measure.

Offensively, the Twins managed eight hits but stranded eight runners and struggled to string together any sort of rally. And when they did, like the bases-loaded, no-out opportunity in the second inning, they came up with absolutely nothing. Willi Castro doubled in a run in the sixth, and Brooks Lee drove in another with a fielder’s choice, but the game was well out of hand by then. It was a quiet finish after Tuesday’s promising victory.

Minnesota drops the series 2-1 and has now lost four of its last five series, after ripping off six straight series wins. The inconsistency in starting pitching, bullpen depth, and offense has started to mount, and Wednesday’s blowout loss only underscored those issues.

What’s Next
The Twins hit the road for a tough weekend series against the first-place Houston Astros, who enter Friday at 37-30. Chris Paddack is scheduled to start the opener for Minnesota against Houston left-hander Colton Gordon.

Postgame Interviews

Coming soon...

Bullpen Usage Chart (Writer's note: with Jonah Bride throwing 3 times in the past 8 days, he's officially getting added to the chart. Embarrassing.)

 

View full article

[Peter]

Horrible terrible and unacceptable!!! Twins need to get their 💩together!!! As of now we are cooked!!! Ober is 💩Pablo is out. This road trip as well games going into all star break is must win!!!

[Whitey333]

Pathetic performance again today.  But at least Rocco thinks they are playing ok.  Unbelievable.

[thelanges5]

Thanks for adding Bride to the bullpen usage chart. 

[Patzky]

No Jax for five days. Spot start forthcoming?

[jmlease1]

Oof. Awful timing for Ober to put up an utter stinker, and surprising to see Sands fail to throw some water on the fire as he'd been quite good this season. Just a dreadful day of pitching all around. Ober does seem to have this in him, though: when he struggles it turns into a 17 car pileup. He really implodes.

It's extra frustrating because Texas has been pretty rotten offensively so far this season. So giving up 16 runs twice in 3 games is pretty gross.

I'm not going to beat up the offense too much for this one, though they certainly could have been better. But when your starter gives up 4 homers, it's going to be a bad day.

Time to cleanse this series from the cache and start over.

[Vanimal46]

Not sure we need to see much more of lefty specialist Wentz 

[thelanges5]

Positives:

Willi Castro stays hot

Lee 12 game hit streak

Coulombe didn’t give up any runs 

[Ricky Vaughn]

The win streak was a mirage. This is our 2025 Minnesota Twins. No hitting and when a couple pitchers go down the pressure crushes the rest of them.

[Blyleven2011]

Double digit losses ...

in the past 8 days and 7 games , the twins pitching has surrendered 3 double digit losses , they have only surrendered 3 all season ( 1 in Sacramento and 2 at hone against Texas ) so since Lopez went on IL list  , what's happening to our pitching  ...

The twins hitters on the other hand have won 5 double digit wins this season  , so we are up 2 in that department  ...

Man this game was another pathetic  , pitiful, putrid , piss poor played game , even my streaming was lost for the game ...

Trying to score and the pressure once again is to much ...

bases full and no outs and all 3 get stranded , still not enough consistency in the clutch ...

new pitcher Wentz's orientation to Minnesota's bullpen Didn't go as planned , better luck next time  ...

Coloumbe still has not given up any of his own runs  and one has to have some concerns about Ober's pitching , his velocity loss and his control , to many walks today ...

Jeffers for a catcher that sees alot of pitches , sure is a bad guesser in recognizing opponents pitches ...

Well here's wishing we beat up on Houston in Houston that are leading their division once again ...

[Craig Arko]

There’s a lot of sick **cks out there.

 

[purplesoldier4u]

People on this site have always been bigger Ober fans than I, and I'm not sure why that is the case. He is consistently inconsistent and in today's game, he was brutal.

[S Bart]

I am curious if the Twins set a record in permitting over ten runs scored in a 7-game period. They lost 14-3 on June 5, 16-4 on June 10 and 16-3 today.  That is 46 total runs....WOW! 

[KirbyDome89]

10 minutes ago, purplesoldier4u said:

People on this site have always been bigger Ober fans than I, and I'm not sure why that is the case. He is consistently inconsistent and in today's game, he was brutal.

He's been pretty damn solid the last 2 seasons. I was down on his ability to stay healthy, but you can't deny he's been a key contributor to a rotation that has carried this team. 

[thelanges5]

Twins starters since Pablo went on the IL-7.07 era

[chinmusic]

18 minutes ago, S Bart said:

I am curious if the Twins set a record in permitting over ten runs scored in a 7-game period. They lost 14-3 on June 5, 16-4 on June 10 and 16-3 today.  That is 46 total runs....WOW! 

Scary, to be sure, but I highly doubt it's a record. Too many teams, and years for this not to have happened before. Seems to me, teams have given up double digits in all three games of a 3 game set.

As for the Twins; bye bye run differential. (that should be their biggest problem)

Oh well, on to Houston. The sheriff will restore order.

[jkcarew]

Giving up the 2-point conversion after the opponent hangs 6 on us is becoming a disturbing trend. 

[mikelink45]

I am in shock - Ober might not be an ACE but he has certainly been really good and this year with the injuries depleting the rotation we need him to be above average and he isn't close.  What is wrong? Wish I knew.  Last year Theilbar stunk and now he is doing great for the Cubs - what did they tweak?  What is the needed tweak for Ober?

But then there is our pen.  When SP sucks the pen is also devastated. 

Another post seemed to indicated Jax is out right now.  What is that all about?

[tony&rodney]

Just an L in the right hand column, no worries. 

With our G. attempting a copy/paste of 1930s Germany, baseball is a pleasant diversion no matter what the score.

[Patzky]

49 minutes ago, chinmusic said:

Scary, to be sure, but I highly doubt it's a record. Too many teams, and years for this not to have happened before. Seems to me, teams have given up double digits in all three games of a 3 game set.

As for the Twins; bye bye run differential. (that should be their biggest problem)

Oh well, on to Houston. The sheriff will restore order.

At least those varmints will have to work a little for their nuggets.

[Western SD Fan]

Something that really didn't come out until after the game today was this article by Dan Hayes from The Athletic linked here: 

Byron Buxton’s all-around effort leads Twins over Rangers; Jorge Alcala traded to Red Sox - The Athletic

Way down at the bottom of the article is a short write up on Ober suffering from knee and hip discomfort since spring training.  This likely has something to do with this reduced velocity as he admits in the article.  This is very scary going forward as what we have seen from Ober lately may be the Ober we are going to see until the end of the season, or when he finally goes on the IL after the Twins are out of the playoff race.  Especially considering that where Ober is performing now is still better than what is currently in St. Paul and the Twins are not going to go searching for a SP in June through a trade.

With all of that being said, today seemed to be a case where we had chances early and squandered it away, especially with bases loaded and nobody out and do not score a run.  I know we are supposed to think of pitchers as concentrating on their craft and not paying attention to the offense.  It does seem though that maybe pitchers are human after all and see what we see and feel like now they have to be perfect because their teammates aren't going to pick them up.  We may have seen a different Ober outing had the Twins scored more runs in the first or second innings today.

[h2oface]

2 hours ago, Craig Arko said:

There’s a lot of sick **cks out there.

 

Is that Peter guy a suspect? 😇

[h2oface]

Wentz another in the long line of dumpster diving. Even the Pirates didn't want him around. 38 pitches for 8 batters and 3 outs. Only 19 strikes. One can always hope.

There goes the all important run differential. Again.

Now the writers can write about Ober...... but if it wasn't for that one game........ but now it is about 3 for the season. They all count.

[FlyingFinn]

3 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

I'm not going to beat up the offense too much for this one, though they certainly could have been better.

I really thought the Twins could have taken the lead after two innings. The first three hitters in each inning were absolutely great. They showed the next hitters what to do. They then did the opposite, swinging at mostly balls out of the strike zone (and even not swinging at some balls in the strike zone). Not sure it would have changed the game but we would have gotten to the bullpen very early if we were up 7-6 after two innings.

[Dave Borton]

This quality of ball where a position player pitches 3 x's in a week is absurd.

Put a quality product on the field. You are losing me.

[Dave Borton]

2 hours ago, Craig Arko said:

There’s a lot of sick ducks out there...

And fortunately I haven't found that element or incivility on TwinsDaily.

Thank you.

[thelanges5]

3 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Not sure we need to see much more of lefty specialist Wentz 

Wentz hadn’t pitched in 16 days and we bring him into this mess as his first game as a Twin. Not saying I have a lot of faith in him but I’d like to see him get a couple more chances. Tonkin is rehabbing again so maybe Wentz is a placeholder until his return. 

[h2oface]

Sonny Gray was the guy to re-sign. If it was to be Lopez or Sonny Gray, I always wanted Gray. Good baseball to be seen with Gray against debut of Misiorowski (78 pitches). Too bad Baldelli pissed him off so much. As I post, Misiorowski with a no-hitter through 5.

Edit: Well, that didn't age well. Gray, after only giving up 3 earned in his last 3 starts, just got tagged for 5 runs in the 5th. 6-0. Ha. A Bailey day.

Edit: .... and Misiorowski throws 3 pitches in the 6th and steps backward up the mound after the third, and drastically twists his right ankle! Leaves game. Always something.......

[D.C Twins]

13 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

Wentz hadn’t pitched in 16 days and we bring him into this mess as his first game as a Twin. Not saying I have a lot of faith in him but I’d like to see him get a couple more chances. Tonkin is rehabbing again so maybe Wentz is a placeholder until his return. 

If Tonkin is an answer... I don't even want to know what the question is!

[USAFChief]

I think it's pretty clear the Twins are not in contention for the division. Outside shot at stealing a wild card.