Twins starter Bailey Ober accomplished a rare feat on Tuesday in the team’s win over the Miami Marlins.
It wasn’t a perfect game, and it wasn’t a no-hitter, but let’s call it near-perfection anyway after Ober went the distance on just 89 pitches, allowing all of two hits, no walks and seven strikeouts in his 3-0 victory over the Fish.
It’s the third complete game of his career. He tossed a rain-shortened complete game in 2025, but also pulled off the real deal against the West Sacramento A’s, or whatever you want to call them, on June 22, 2024.
He, too, went the distance on 89 pitches in that 10-2 win over the A’s, the Star Tribune reported. Ober was in such control that former manager Rocco Baldelli didn’t even bother to check in with pitching coach Pete Maki during the game, the newspaper reported.
“Pete who? I didn’t talk to Pete today,” Baldelli told the paper. “Pete did a great job with his pitcher today, and I barely spoke with him. It’s an amazing sign — to get me to not talk to Pete Maki during the game takes a lot. But Bailey gave us a lot.”
The Twins backed Bailey with just enough runs in the 5th inning.
Byron Buxton walked, Trevor Larnach singled, then both pulled off the double steal. Larnach made it to second base and Buck scored at home. Ryan Jeffers then stepped up to the plate and hit it out, a two-run dinger to make it 3-0.
Simeon Woods Richardson, who is still looking for his first win, gets the ball Wednesday.
Extra innings…
–The Twins, Tigers and Royals are all 19-23 in the division.
–Ober is now 4-2 with a 3.46 ERA.
–The Twins have won three straight, getting a series win over the Cleveland Guardians and taking Game 1 of the series versus the Marlins.
–What happens when a pitcher completes a dominant win? Well, you barely have time to finish a couple of hot dogs and a couple of beers because Tuesday’s game was played in two hours and seven minutes.
–Disappointing attendance totals: 13,471 watched this one at Target Field, according to the box score, which also shows that it was a perfectly comfortable 68 degrees. Not good, Twins Territory.
–I listened to Tuesday’s game and it had the perfect ending as the ball was grounded to first baseman Kody Clemens, who then tossed it to Ober covering the bag. You couldn’t have scripted that any better.
Source: Newspapers.com