Twins 6, Orioles 3: Nine. Times.

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober - 4 2/3 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 HR (102 pitches; 57 strikes)
Home Runs: Brooks Lee (4), Christian Vázquez (1)
Top 3 WPA: Vázquez .322, Trevor Larnach .164, Griffin Jax .135
Win Probability Chart (Via FanGraphs):

It doesn't exactly feel restful, when they come this way, but the Twins got two days off in a row before taking the field Wednesday. That's the good news. The tougher news is, they have to play twice, at the front end of a stretch in which they play three consecutive series without a day off. That means nine games in eight days, which will require some roster maneuvering and some heroic pitching performances. Tougher still, the first two pitchers tasked with delivering those innings-eating outings are Bailey Ober and Simeon Woods Richardson, each of whom just faced the Orioles last week in Minnesota. As Cody Christie documented here earlier today, that poses an especially thorny challenge for a starting pitcher.

Early on, though, Ober was up to it and then some. He largely kept Baltimore batters off-balance over the first two frames, aided by a self-sacrificing, diving catch by Harrison Bader in the first on a foul ball that took him hard into the sidewall in foul territory. Ober cleverly mixed his stuff, as he always does, with some special wrinkles designed to confound Orioles hitters hunting familiar sequences. For instance, he started Ramón Laureano with three straight changeups to lead off the bottom of the third, then showed him one high heater and went back to the change for an easy groundout. Four changeups in five pitches to a right-handed batter is not the typical approach for Ober; it's emblematic of the adjustments he made to frustrate anyone sitting on a particular pitch they saw too often last week at Target Field.

Immediately thereafter, though, he got himself into trouble. Against No. 9 hitter Ramón Urías (who wasn't seeing him for a second time in a short window; he was on the IL when the O's were in Minneapolis last week), Ober went back to trying to mix his fastball with the changeup, but his command of the heater faltered. On a 3-2 pitch, he missed low and away, committing the cardinal sin of issuing a bases-empty walk as the Orioles flipped over the lineup card. 

Jackson Holliday couldn't make him pay, but Ryan Mountcastle came up with Urías on first and two outs. He'd notched a sacrifice fly and a ringing fifth-inning double against Ober last week, the latter creating a big jame the big righty had to work out of. That double came on a slider, and when Ober fell behind 3-1 and tried to sneak another slider in the zone by him, Mountcastle did it again. Urías, running on contact with two outs, was always going to try to score, but the pace of the ball and the skill of Bader (pursuing it into the corner) made the success of that endeavor far from assured. Sadly, the ball caught a corner and dropped against the wall, whereas Bader had been anticipating a hard bounce off the barrier. By the time he reversed his deceleration and chased it all the way to its resting place, there wasn't quite time for even the well-executed relay to Carlos Correa and Christian Vázquez. That made it 1-0 Orioles. 

It also brought up Gunnar Henderson, the hottest hitter in the Orioles' lineup, after he'd smashed a ground ball at 106 mph in his first at-bat. Ober worked a 2-2 count on him, but (perhaps getting too cute) tried a curveball to finish the inning. It wasn't a true hanger, but Henderson was ready for it, and smashed it well over the right-field wall. Suddenly, the Twins were in a 3-0 hole.

Happily, though, it didn't last even a half-inning. Brooks Lee took the first pitch of the fourth over the wall in center, just off the skyward-reaching glove of Cedric Mullins. A well-placed dribbler got Correa aboard, and Willi Castro drew a walk. Then, however, Royce Lewis struck out and Bader flied out to left. It could have been a wasted rally, and the game probably takes a very different shape from there if it had been. Instead, the most unlikely hero of this long winning streak emerged. Vázquez, also getting a meaty curveball, launched it out to left-center field for a lead the team would not relinquish.

Ober didn't even make it through five innings, which is unfortunate, under these circumstances. Other than that bad wobble in the third, though, he held Baltimore at bay. Danny Coulombe got him out of a jam in the fifth, and the team's deep bullpen followed its familiar formula thereafter. Some shaky defense by Lee at second and Correa at short threatened to result in another blown lead with Griffin Jax on the mound, but Jax gutted his way through and kept the 4-3 edge. Two insurance runs (the direct result of a Trevor Larnach double against a lefty, in a showdown the Orioles created on purpose by pitching around Byron Buxton) made the bottom of the ninth low-stress for Jhoan Duran.

Notes
In addition to Bader's great catch (one which briefly looked like it would knock him out of the game; he hobbled around a while and looks like he'll sport a bruise on his right knee after his collision with the wall), Buxton made a fine diving play later in the game to rob what would have been a game-tying single. Those two continue to be a sparkling defensive duo, and the Twins' fly ball-oriented pitching staff really positions them to have an outsized impact.

Ty France left mid-game after fouling a ball off his left instep. The initial diagnosis is a foot contusion. We'll see if he can get back into the lineup for Game 2.

Kody Funderburk is the 27th man for the double-dip. Expect him to pitch in this second contest.

What’s Next: The turnaround is so tight that Game 2 might be in progress by the time you read this. Simeon Woods Richardson takes the ball and will try to stretch the streak to double digits.