A rough three-inning stretch from Bailey Ober cost the Twins a winnable game against Baltimore, but Minnesota is still hanging around the American League wild card race.
Three swings from the Baltimore lineup turned a promising Tuesday night at Target Field into another frustrating loss for the Minnesota Twins, and it took less than three innings to happen.
Bailey Ober had not lost a decision since returning from injury on July 9th, but Gunnar Henderson led off with a single and Pete Alonso followed with a homer, and by the third inning Baltimore had three long balls and a 5-1 lead.
The Twins chipped away with two runs but never got closer, and the Orioles held on for a 5-2 win that dropped Minnesota to 3-7 in its last ten games.
Three Early Homers Doom Ober
Ober settled in and worked six innings, but the damage from those first three frames was done.
Alonso hit his 26th homer of the season in the first, Henderson added his 19th in the second, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand connected in the third.
Minnesota answered with a run in each of the second and third innings, the first on an Alan Roden groundout and the second on a Brooks Lee double, but the Twins went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Ober's final line pushed his ERA to 4.64 on the season, and the loss dropped his record to 7-4.
Brandon Young picked up the win, and Andrew Kittredge closed it out for his sixth save.
Wild Card Race Still Within Reach
The loss stings more given where the Twins sit.
Minnesota fell to 59-62 on the year, but the club remains just a game and a half back of the final American League wild card spot despite a losing record.
That gap shows how muddled the AL picture is this year with a sub-.500 team still in the mix.
Minnesota has leaned on moments like Royce Lewis's walk-off triple against Kansas City to stay afloat through a stretch that has not been kind to the rotation or the lineup with runners on base.
The Twins have lost seven of their last ten games, and nights like Tuesday show how thin the margin is between staying in the race and fading out of it.
What's Next for Minnesota
The Twins and Orioles play the rubber match Wednesday at Target Field, with Zebby Matthews facing off against Baltimore's Shane Baz, and it comes without Joe Ryan, who went on the injured list this month with a glute strain that has forced the rotation to carry more weight.
After Wednesday, Minnesota heads to the Field of Dreams site in Iowa on Thursday to face Philadelphia before the Phillies visit Target Field for the weekend, and the Twins close the stretch against Atlanta the following Monday.
Minnesota traded for reliever A.J. Minter at the deadline as part of a move that signaled the front office still believes in this roster, and the bullpen has held up its end since.
The rotation is the bigger question now with Ryan out and Ober still searching for consistency after a night where three mistakes over the plate turned into three homers.
Minnesota has Philadelphia and Atlanta up next, and how the Twins respond will say plenty about whether this team can hang around the wild card picture into September.
