Bailey Ober logged six strong innings and the Minnesota Twins held off the Detroit Tigers for a 4-3 victory in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon.
Ober (1-1) was perfect until Matt Vierling singled with one out in the fifth. The right-hander fanned the next two batters he faced, though, two of his six strikeouts on the afternoon.
Steven Okert came on in the seventh for Ober, who yielded one run on two hits and a walk.
Minnesota relied on small ball to get on the board, scoring its runs on three sacrifice flies and a fielder’s choice-grounder.
The Twins picked up a pair of critical runs in the fifth to build a 4-0 cushion. An Alex Kirilloff grounder ricocheted off first baseman Spencer Torkelson’s glove, allowing Austin Martin to score, then Trevor Larnach drove in Ryan Jeffers with a sacrifice fly.
It proved to be an important rally when Wenceel Perez ripped a run-scoring triple off Ober in the sixth ahead of Javier Baez’s RBI double off Cole Sands in the seventh.
Detroit then pulled within 4-3 in the eighth on Kerry Carpenter’s run-scoring single.
But the Tigers were never able to draw even, and Griffin Jax pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his second save of the season.
Byron Buxton and Martin each finished with two hits for Minnesota, which snapped a five-game skid.
Vierling went 2-for-4 with a run and Riley Greene scored twice as Detroit fell for the third time in four games. Tigers starter Reese Olson (0-3) lasted five innings, giving up four runs (two earned) and five hits. He walked two and fanned four.
Willi Castro put Minnesota up 1-0 in the second with a sacrifice fly.
Martin help double the Twins’ lead an inning later by doubling, advancing to third on Edouard Julien’s groundout and scoring on Jeffers’ sacrifice fly.
Minnesota looked like it was going to pull away in the fourth, as Larnach and Buxton opened the frame with back-to-back singles.
However, Jose Miranda proceeded to hit into a double play and, two batters later, Jair Camargo grounded into a forceout to end the inning.
–Field Level Media