Orioles 5, Twins 2: Ober Gives Up Three Homers, Twins Bats Give Up Clutch Hitting

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Bailey Ober 6.0 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (100 pitches, 60 strikes (60%))
Home Runs: N/A
Bottom 3 WPA: Ober (-0.23), Alan Roden (-0.18), Kaelen Culpepper and Trevor Larnach (-0.14)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Twins looked to continue their home cooked success against a dwindling Baltimore club. Bailey Ober hadn't lost since his return on July 9th, even though he mostly endured no decisions along the way with only one actual victory. Brandon Young stood on the mound for the Orioles, and his July and August efforts resulted in similar win/loss results. The wild card race somehow still involves these sub-.500 teams, so Tuesday night mattered whether anyone liked it or not.

The Margin Between Meat and Crafty
The Twins struggled last week when their starters continuously put their team behind 2-0 early. After two batters Tuesday the Orioles were ahead 2-0, as Gunnar Henderson and Pete Alonso ripped a double and homer respectively off of center-cut 88 mph "fastballs." The Twins couldn't muster anything in their half of the first, and Gunnar struck again in the top of the second, this time a two-run homer of his own to make it 4-0. 

The "crafty" Young meanwhile gave up a couple of singles and a hit batter to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the second, but an Alan Roden dribbler for an out was the only RBI of the inning, as Brooks Lee was meat at home on a Kaelen Culpepper grounder to third, and Trevor Larnach also couldn't deliver with runners in scoring position. Before you could say "at least we are only down three now," Christian Encarnacion-Strand took an 82.8 mph changeup 460 feet. 5-1 Orioles, and Ober's meatball offerings were dampening the Target Field faithful's spirits on an already intolerably muggy night.

Getting Into Gear, but Still Slipping in the Clutch
The bottom of the third saw the Twins once again put two men on with nobody out on a Ryan Jeffers infield single and a catchers interference that allowed Josh Bell to reach. Kody Clemens and Royce Lewis couldn't move the runners, but Lee snuck a grounder past a diving Polar Bear for a run-scoring double. Luke Keaschall worked a walk to load the bases yet again, but Roden couldn't make contact and another bases loaded threat went unfulfilled.

Ober survived the fourth, and Culpepper led off the bottom of the fourth with a single, and advanced to second on a Larnach ground-out. Jeffers struck out and Bell hit the one millionth ground ball to second base on the evening (sarcasm alert), and the home team was 1-for-9 with scoring opportunities through four innings.

A Tale of Two Bullpens
Once the air began to cool, so did the Orioles offense, and Ober survived six innings and 100 pitches. Kody Funderburk came in to tackle the top of the seventh and he set down the first two batters in quick order. The next three to drive the nail in the coffin, as a single and a walk put clutter on the bases and Tyler O'Neill ripped a single to left. Alonso tried to score on the play, but Larnach gunned him down at the plate to keep the game within striking distance.

The problem was that the Twins couldn't strike against the Baltimore pen either. They got runners on against old friend Yennier Cano in the bottom of the eighth, but new friends Roden and Culpepper again failed to plate their teammates as Roden continues to underwhelm in clutch situations, and Culpepper's shine begins to wear off in the field (botched communication led to an extra run in the second) and at the plate (the strike zone continues to elude him). That was as close to scoring as Minnesota would come, and the game ended much like it began: disappointingly.

What’s Next?
The Twins look to win another home series in a Wednesday matinee. Twins righty Zebby Matthews (5-8, 5.23 ERA) hopes to survive his blistered foot and give his squad another quality start. The Orioles will march out the young righty Shane Baz (4-11, 3.76 ERA), whose record speaks more to the Orioles lack of offense this season than any weakness on his part. First pitch is scheduled for 12:40pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Funderburk	0	21	15	0	22	58
Nance	24	0	11	0	18	53
Rogers	0	0	0	30	18	48
Hoffman	25	15	0	0	0	40
Adams	0	15	0	21	0	36
Morris	13	0	14	0	0	27
Gomez	12	0	9	0	0	21
Minter	3	0	16	0	0	19

View full article

[Hunter4848]

Twins are incredibly lucky to be in this joke of a division 

[Saxophone Joe]

I don’t even need to watch Shelty’s postgame interview to hear him say the all too familiar refrain: We had opportunities. Just couldn’t capitalize. 

[thelanges5]

Top four in the order went 1 for 16.  
 

Offense has been held to four runs or less in 17 of 24 games since the All-Star break. League average is 4.4 runs per game.

[jkcarew]

8 minutes ago, Hunter4848 said:

Twins are incredibly lucky to be in this joke of a division 

Or…it sucks that we’re in this division because it gives the organization rationale to continuously and forever set the bar low…while knowing that a large portion of the fast base will swallow the “we’re competing, we’re in it” narrative, which runs from mostly false to completely false depending on the season. It’s a double-edged sword, the ALC.

[wesnewy]

Can we stop being bipolar now?

 

[DJL44]

They need to go 25-16 to reach 84 wins.

[USAFChief]

Drive in some runs, ferpetesakes.

 

 

[Hubie29]

One step forward two steps back. Two steps forward one step back. Rinse and repeat. 

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Rough night for Ober. 

Getting any sort of hit from Roden would've been great. He still looks completely lost at the plate. Yes hes young. Less than 200 ABs, I get all that. Swap him out for ERod or Jenkins and see what happens. 

Hopefully the bats are awake tomorrow...

[knothole61]

Ober and out!

I know that he has had some nice starts such as his 2-hit gem against the Marlins, but Ober's soft stuff does lend itself to homer fests like tonight. It's a crap-shoot from start-to-start with him (more than most?) but I really like the guy. I just wish there was some corner he could turn to improve. I think that he needs another 5 mph on his fastball, but it would take some serious alchemy to get him there!

[RaoulDuke]

Ober is going to start a playoff game if they manage to do something crazy.

[Peter]

Baltimore used up their home runs with 3 last night-twins get win today!!!

[MMMordabito]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

Baltimore used up their home runs with 3 last night-twins get win today!!!

Zebby gives up homers at the same rate as Bailey.

[HarmonK03]

7 hours ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

Rough night for Ober. 

Getting any sort of hit from Roden would've been great. He still looks completely lost at the plate. Yes hes young. Less than 200 ABs, I get all that. Swap him out for ERod or Jenkins and see what happens. 

Hopefully the bats are awake tomorrow...

He will actually turn 27 after the season ends, not necessarily young in baseball years any more.

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

I was surprised to see Encarnacion-Strand was back in the majors again, this time with the Orioles, and annoyed that he homered against us. Just one of those losses. Hopefully our bats wake up in the next game.

[HarmonK03]

It is interesting Clemens and Lee have very similar stats this year and Lee will bat anywhere from 1st to 8th, while Clemens seems to be in the 3rd or 4th spot unless facing a LH pitcher.  

Clemens when he is on, is good, but when he is off, he struggles.  He really needs to be moved down in the order until he regains his hitting stroke again.  And if they ever decide to bring Jenkins up, you may need to give some spot starts to Keaschall at 2B.  I know we are giving up some on defense, but Clemens has to find his stroke again.  He is hitting worse than he was in April .

[Coach]

Roden is a clutch hitter, with both hands around his throat!

[Jack Pine]

Just another lackluster performance from a team that wants to compete.

[chinmusic]

9 hours ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

Getting any sort of hit from Roden would've been great. He still looks completely lost at the plate. Yes hes young. Less than 200 ABs, I get all that

I don't know. Sure, he's relatively young. I think the problem though , is his talent rather than his age.

[tony&rodney]

So, people like to use OPS but think RBI is useless. One wonders if the players subscribe to that thinking as well? It would explain yesterday.

It is just one game. The Twins play today. It might be getting late early. The games versus CWS, DET, and CLE will be huge. 

[stringer bell]

9 hours ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

Rough night for Ober. 

Getting any sort of hit from Roden would've been great. He still looks completely lost at the plate. Yes hes young. Less than 200 ABs, I get all that. Swap him out for ERod or Jenkins and see what happens. 

Hopefully the bats are awake tomorrow...

Buxton for Roden, hoefully by this weekend.

[MinnInPa]

7 hours ago, knothole61 said:

Ober and out!

I know that he has had some nice starts such as his 2-hit gem against the Marlins, but Ober's soft stuff does lend itself to homer fests like tonight. It's a crap-shoot from start-to-start with him (more than most?) but I really like the guy. I just wish there was some corner he could turn to improve. I think that he needs another 5 mph on his fastball, but it would take some serious alchemy to get him there!

no confidence in a win when hes walking out there ..same with Matthews.. he'll probably give up at least 3 HR's today... if he can keep it under 5 runs and go 5 innings ..i think our bullpen can shut em down and we can pull out a 7-5 win .. IF!!! ..our boys can knock in guys ISP

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

2 hours ago, HarmonK03 said:

He will actually turn 27 after the season ends, not necessarily young in baseball years any more.

Proves my point even more, I suppose. 

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

31 minutes ago, chinmusic said:

I don't know. Sure, he's relatively young. I think the problem though , is his talent rather than his age.

100% agree. Usually get jumped all over when criticizing recent call ups, so i wanted to word it differently. But definitely agree. He doesn't seem to have it. 

[PuckettPond]

Looking more & more Twins should have been sellers @ the trade deadline for a brighter future. 

[90stwinskid]

Another tough one. Team has some fight, though. Not out of it yet.

Post-deadline: 3-5

Overall: 59-62

[bean5302]

We're not out of it, but we're now 3rd in the division and falling against the White Sox and Tigers, who've worked their way back into contention.