Make It Official! Twins 11, Pirates 5: Twins Avoid Another Sweep, Win in Wild 10th Inning

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober: 4 2/3 IP 7 H 4 ER 2 BB 5 K (85 Pitches, 57 Strikes, 67%)
Home Runs: (None)
Top 3 WPA: Manuel Margot (.241), Royce Lewis (.150), Jhoan Duran (.143)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

Riding the roller coaster of the 2024 Twins, we've hit the fourth or fifth low point, with the offense having its water completely shut off over the past week. The starting pitching performances, after a rough go-around in New York, have been excellent in the series against Pittsburgh thus far, yet the losing streak stands at five. Today, the Twins turned to Bailey Ober and his suddenly-hittable fastball, while the Pirates countered with flamethrowing rookie Jared Jones.

Things couldn't have begun better, despite Rocco Baldelli inexplicably turning to Carlos Santana in the leadoff spot. Against a righty, against whom the switch-hitter has a .639 OPS. Predictably, Santana made the first out, but that was followed by a hard hit single by Trevor Larnach after falling behind 0-2, a ringing single from Carlos Correa that a Connor Joe error in left turned into a two base hit, and a Max Kepler walk to load the bases. Jose Miranda worked an excellent at-bat that resulted in a walk, and Alex Kirilloff grounded out to drive in the second run.

Perhaps making up for some of the abhorrent calls made against the Twins in Saturday's game, a foul ball off the bat of Byron Buxton was then ruled a passed ball, allowing Kepler to score the third run.

Ober, meanwhile, pitched fairly well. locating his fastball with velocities up to 94 MPH, and throwing his change-up and cutter equally as much as the heater. He left a few cutters towards the middle of the plate, but the power deficient Pirates could only manage a few singles and a Rowdy Tellez double in the early going, resulting in one run.

Correa made all three outs in the third, making an incredible stop and bounce throw on this grounder from Henry Davis, nearly making an equally great stop on a ball up the middle from Andrew McCutchen, and then taking the double play himself on a shot up the middle from Bryan Reynolds.

Jones seemed to make an adjustment starting in the second inning, relying heavily on his changeup and getting into a rhythm versus a Twins team whose game plan seemed to be to jump on Jones early in counts, since has essentially been a fastball-slider pitcher thus far in his career. The changeup emphasis put the Twins hitters just a bit off balance, and were held scoreless in innings two through five, despite putting traffic on the bases in every inning.

Ober cruised through four innings and got two quick outs in the fifth. But Davis and McCutchen worked excellent at-bats, seeing 17 pitches between them and refusing to chase as they each walked. Reynolds lined a double into the corner to score Davis, and Connor Joe then tripled to the gap to score two more runs, chasing Ober from the game. It's hard to fault Ober for not giving in to Davis and McCutchen, but at a certain point you have the get the third strike and the third out, and as good as Ober has looked at times this year, that has been a pain point for him.

The Twins quickly tied the game back up, capitalizing on some wildness from reliever Kyle Nicholas, who issued a single to Jeffers, hit Willie Castro with a pitch, threw a wild pitch and walked Santana. Royce Lewis was called upon to pinch hit for Larnach, and hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Jeffers. After a Correa walk, Kepler grounded out weakly against lefty Justin Bruihl to end the threat.

After a few quick innings, the Pirates brought in Aroldis Chapman to start the ninth. With the score still 4-4. Lewis launched a 98 MPH fastball into the left-center gap for a double. Correa did everything in his power to hit a ball to the right side of the field, but ended up popping out in that direction. Kepler lined a ball to center that old friend Michael A. Taylor made a nice read on, and Miranda flied out to end the scoring chance.

After a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth from Jhoan Duran, Manuel Margot led off the tenth (only the second extra innings game of the year for the Twins) with a triple to the gap in right-center to score ghost runner Kyle Farmer. Pirates reliever Ben Heller then drilled Buxton in the back and allowed him to steal second. Jeffers then worked an excellent ten pitch at-bat that resulted in a walk, bringing up Castro with the bases loaded. Castro was hit by a pitch, his second of the game and fourth time he had been hit in the series. Going back to last year's series against the Pirates, where Matt Wallner earned the nickname "Cement-Bones," Pirates pitching has hit Twins hitters approximately 700 times the past two years.

Santana then broke through with a two-run double, Correa added a two-run single and Kepler a run scoring single to break the game open. Not to be outdone, Heller then hit Kyle Farmer for his third of the inning. Given that the Twins scored seven runs and none of the hit-by-pitches resulted in injury, I have never been happier seeing a man's career end, as he has no reason to remain a big league pitcher.

The Good:
-Correa took smart at-bats, roped two hard hit singles and made several great defensive plays.
-Lewis still can do no wrong, with a crucial RBI and a leadoff double in the ninth.
-Cole Sands, Thielbar, Griffin Jax, Jorge Alcala and Jhoan Duran all pitched scoreless appearances, and all looked good doing so.

The Bad:
-Ober was good to start, but his inability to finish off innings and hitters bit him badly. Both rallies by the Pirates came with two outs already recorded.
-Santana can provide value to a team at this stage in his career, since he can hit lefties and play a great first base. The Twins are not putting him in a good position to maximize that value right now.

What’s Next: Chris Paddack (4-3, 5.26 ERA) will try and bounce back against righty Dakota Hudson (2-7, 5.25 ERA) as the Twins return home to face one of the sorrier teams in the National League, the Colorado Rockies.

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Chart: