SEATTLE – This is Bailey Ober's team now.
OK, not in a literal sense, but if the Twins are going to accomplish anything of value during this lost 16-games-back season, it's probably going to have to be development of young players. And nowhere do they need that development more than their starting rotation.
Enter Ober, a 25-year-old rookie who has looked more confident and effective in each of his four encouraging, if brief, starts. On Wednesday, Ober faced 12 Mariner hitters and easily retired 11 of them, six by strikeout, propelling the Twins to their first win after three straight losses, 7-2 at T-Mobile Park.
Ober threw only 63 pitches, but like Josh Donaldson and Andrelton Simmons, was lifted from the game a little early. Fortunately for the Twins, unlike the other two, Ober's departure wasn't due to injury.
Yeah, it was one of those who's-hurt-now nights.
Jorge Polanco collected three hits and became the first Twin in more than two years to steal third base (or even attempt it), Nelson Cruz hit his 84th career home run in Seattle's ballpark, and Ryan Jeffers hit his second home run in three games. But whatever good feelings the Twins generated with their most lopsided victory in nearly four weeks were tempered by the sight of the left side of their infield walking off due to injury.
Donaldson, who singled and scored in the first inning on a Jeffers single, left the game in the third inning after experiencing tightness in his right calf, the same one that caused him to miss more than a month last season. The decision to remove Donaldson, who had played in 54 of the Twins' previous 57 games, was precautionary, the Twins said.
Two innings later, Simmons departed, too, with what the Twins described as tightness in his left ankle. Perhaps neither injury is serious, but that hasn't exactly been the Twins' luck this year.
Amid all the shuffling, Ober remained firmly in control of a Seattle offense that scored 14 runs in winning the first two games of this series. The 6-foot-9 right-hander, the Twins' 12th-round pick in 2017 out of the College of Charleston, allowed nothing but soft contact, when he allowed contact at all. The hardest-hit ball he allowed was a ground out by Ty France that registered only 95.5 mph.
Meanwhile, his fastball regularly hit 92 mph, and his changeup continually froze Mariners hitters. Ober retired the first nine hitters in order, then allowed a single to J.P. Crawford to lead off the fourth inning, a batter who was erased when he was thrown out trying to steal second.
The Twins had little trouble with Mariners left-hander Justus Sheffield, putting their leadoff hitter on base four times in his five innings, and scoring in three of them. Cruz hit his 30th home run since his 40th birthday, one short of Dave Winfield's franchise record, off a Sheffield sinker in the fifth inning, and Jeffers followed with a homer of his own.
Perhaps the most notable offensive event, though, was provided by Willians Astudillo, who took over for Donaldson. Astudillo had not drawn a walk in his previous 153 plate appearances, dating back to Sept. 24, 2019, but he took four straight balls from Sheffield in the third inning — then drew another in the fifth, the first two-walk game of his career.
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