TORONTO — Walks will punish any pitcher, even those who rarely give them up.
Home runs, too.
So the Twins were reminded on Saturday, when two of their least likely pitchers to issue the freebies, starter Bailey Ober and reliever Jovani Moran, combined to put six extra Blue Jays on base. Half of them scored, allowing Toronto to pull away to a 6-2 victory at Rogers Centre.
Ober's streak of 19 innings without a walk was broken with four quick balls to No. 9 hitter Reese McGuire in the third inning, though that one did no harm when Ober ended the inning by striking out George Springer.
But an inning later, after Toronto second baseman Marcus Simien blasted a home run to left field, Ober got ahead of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 0-2 but eventually walked him with his ninth pitch. Perhaps understandably, given Guerrero's status as the major leagues' home run leader, but it still amounted to the rookie right-hander's first two-walk start in more than two months, since July 10.
And it was a costly one. Bo Bichette followed with a single, and Teoscar Hernandez lofted Ober's next pitch a foot or two over the left-field wall, a three-run homer that put the Blue Jays ahead for good.
In the seventh, rookie reliever Moran, who arrived in the major leagues with some preposterously low walk rates in the minor leagues, loaded the bases with walks to pinch hitter Alejandro Kirk, Springer and Guerrero. Kyle Barraclough relieved him, but Bichette lined his third single of the day over shortstop Nick Gordon's head, adding another two-run cushion on the Jays' lead.
That was plenty, given how silent the Twins offense went after Josh Donaldson's first-inning home run, a two-run blast to right and the former Toronto star's second in two days. Minnesota managed only four singles over the next eight innings against Toronto starter Steven Matz and four Blue Jays relievers.
