Twins Video
Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober — 7.1 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 2 K, 0 BB (92 pitches, 67 strikes, 73%)
Home Runs: Edouard Julien (2), Ryan Jeffers (1)
Top 3 WPA: Ober (.164), Julien (.131), Byron Buxton (.069)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):
Coming off their most successful week of the season, a 5-1 home stand against the White Sox and Angels, the Twins headed into Cleveland with a clear mandate: prove you can translate the improved performance to more legitimate competition. So far, so great. Minnesota came out of the gates in this four-game series with their best performance of the season, jumping to a big early lead and adding on relentlessly on the way to a blowout victory.
The Twins set the tone immediately, with Edouard Julien swinging at the first pitch he saw from Cleveland starter Gavin Williams and launching it over the center field wall for his second home run of the season. Minnesota added another run in the inning on a double from Ryan Jeffers, scoring Carlos Correa, but Ty France was thrown out at home (by a longshot) to end the inning.
The Twins lineup got right back after it in the second inning, loading the bases for Byron Buxton who flared a liner past second baseman Gabriel Arias, scoring two more runs and pushing the lead to 4-0. Missing Andrés Giménez, Guards fans?
The top of the fifth brought another crooked number from the Minnesota offense, with Jonah Bride and Harrison Bader each delivering RBI singles from the bottom of the order. For Bride it was part of a three-hit night, nearly matching his total in 12 games with the Marlins before they cut him. The 29-year-old is now 7-for-14 since joining the Twins and is looking like a nifty little pickup.
The runs kept pouring on in the sixth as Minnesota tallied three more, including two on a Ty France double. By this point the Twins had already healthily surpassed their highest run total from last year's 13 matchups against Cleveland (6). They finished with 11, the most runs scored against the Guardians since the infamous Lucas Giolito game in September of 2023. Tone-setter, indeed.
While Bailey Ober surely appreciated all that run support, he didn't need it. The right-hander was dialed and in control, peppering the strike zone with efficiency and inducing an endless string of ground balls. Ober didn't miss a ton of bats but didn't need to, as he let Guardians hitters get themselves out on the way to 7 ⅔ innings of one-run ball.
Not only did Cleveland drop the series opener, their fourth loss in five games, but the drain on their pitching staff also threatens to create headaches for Stephen Vogt in the remainder of the series. Their staff was already somewhat gassed coming into this one, after the Guardians played a double-header on Saturday and got just 4 ⅓ innings from Logan Allen in a blowout loss on Sunday. This was kinda the last thing they needed.
Williams lasted only two innings after the Twins got to him early, and then in the fifth, Paul Sewald had to exit abruptly due to an injury, signaling to the dugout after throwing his 15th pitch. Sewald was a relatively big-splash acquisition for the Guards during the offseason (much to my puzzlement), and they're likely going to be without him for a while. Initial word from Cleveland is that the veteran reliever has right shoulder inflammation.
The circumstances pushed Vogt and the Guardians to put a position-player on the mound in the eighth inning. Even after getting two innings out of infielder Will Wilson, they're going to be pressed to get through the next three games with a thinned-out relief corps. Rocco Baldelli and the Twins have no such concerns coming off deep starts from both Ober and Joe Ryan (the first back-to-back 7+ inning starts for MN since last June), with all of their high-leverage arms completely fresh heading into Tuesday.
What's Next: The Twins will be countering Cleveland right-hander Tanner Bibee with Chris Paddack in another 5:10 PM CT start. It sounds like a lopsided matchup favoring the Guards, and it probably is, but Paddack has looked solid since his season-opening clunker against Chicago (3.32 ERA in four starts) and Bibee's been struggling, with 14 walks and a league-leading eight homers allowed in 26 innings. If the Twins can win this one they'll be within two games of .500, and just 1 ½ games behind Cleveland in the AL Central standings.
Postgame Interviews:
Bullpen Usage Chart:
| THU | FRI | SAT | SUN | MON | TOT | |
| Topa | 0 | 15 | 0 | 27 | 0 | 42 |
| Alcalá | 41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 60 |
| Varland | 0 | 20 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 39 |
| Jax | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| Sands | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| Stewart | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Coulombe | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Durán | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
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