MINNEAPOLIS — Bailey Ober missed early. The Twins’ coaching staff also made some seemingly questionable decisions early on. And the Twins hitters? Well, they never got going.
The combination led to a homestand opening debacle Monday as the Twins lost 4-1 to the San Francisco Giants in front of a crowd of 16,627 at Target Field. Ober allowed four runs in the first inning, including a three-run home run, and the Twins were no match for the previously beatable Sean Manaea, who hit eight strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings. The Twins finished with just four goals in an uninspiring loss, their fifth in seven games.
“Crashing so early when we’re not really making a lot of runs can be tough,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “But you shouldn’t let that influence you in the future. On the mental side, to keep playing nine innings and giving yourself a chance to get back in the game, we still have work to do in that regard. We can say yes, a hit (here) or there and suddenly we have two or three runs on the board. That’s actually true. But talking about it is one thing. We need to go out there and do it. We just need more good bats. We get some, but just not enough.”
Although San Francisco only defeated the Twins 5-4, it was more than enough.
Ober started averaging just 2.1 walks per nine innings, a very good stat. He had four times as many strikeouts (28) as walks (seven) in 30 1/3 innings this season.
Still, Ober had little to no sense of the zone early on, running LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski on 13 squares early in the game. The San Francisco offense was not long in coming, as JD Davis hit a one-run double and followed Michael Conforto into the bullpen with a stunning three-run home run.
Just like that, the Twins were four runs behind.
Ober followed by leading Blake Sabol on 11 pitches, putting him in danger of being knocked out in the first inning. The right-hander managed to pull back the next three batsmen to end the inning, but not before throwing 39 pitches.
“Obviously, it’s definitely a bit of a drag,” Ober said. “I didn’t know how many pitches I was throwing until I was done with that inning. I looked at the scoreboard and realized how many I had thrown. But during the innings you’re just trying to run and pitch, get these guys out and limit as much damage as possible. … If I could do it again I’d re-run the first two guys and definitely try to get in the zone a lot better than I did.”
Ober recovered and knocked out 13 of the last 16 batsmen he faced, but the damage was done. Especially given the way the Twins hit.
Giants opener John Brebbia batted twice in a scoreless first inning and passed the baton to Manaea, who started with a 7.81 ERA in 27 2/3 innings. Manaea didn’t look like a 16-walk pitcher but effectively hit his pitches and overpowered the Twins.
While Baldelli hoped his team would slowly and surely erode San Francisco’s early lead, he never quite succeeded. The Twins had two players on board, with two outs to Byron Buxton in the third and fifth innings. But Buxton flew into the middle and landed in third to end those rallies.
The Twins had made the leadoff man in the second and fourth innings, but Manaea crushed those as well.
He limited the Twins to three hits and three walks in an 83-pitch attempt that his opponents weren’t sure they’d see after Manaea participated in a pregame bullpen.
“It’s not the way you’d ever want to start a ballgame, either from a (Ober’s) perspective or from a team perspective,” Baldelli said. “Again: It’s not like we’ve been going through every inning in silence and stuff like that. … (Kyle) Garlick hit the home run, but otherwise there wasn’t much going on with runners in goal position and things like that.”
While there wasn’t much action overall, Baldelli heated up the fanbase with a series of early moves that drastically changed the lineup. San Francisco uses several bulk pitchers including Manaea, Jakob Junis and Tristan Beck. As Brebbia Manaea gave way, Baldelli turned to his right-handers, resulting in newcomer Edouard Julien being removed before he could even strike.
Donovan Solano fought for Julien early in the second inning and Garlick scored for Alex Kirilloff in the third inning.
“When you start the game down 4-0 it really affects a lot of things,” said Baldelli. “But if you go down 4-0 and they bring in manaea, that tells you he’s going to pitch. Could they have knocked him out after an inning? Yes, but we didn’t think that would be the case if he made the game, and he made the game. After they took the lead, we had to get our guys in there.
“So it was definitely an unorthodox kind of play with the moves that we were doing, but Solano and Garlick pulled into that and did a pretty good job. Yes, it’s unusual, but our boys were prepared for what was to come. They knew it was an opening game and they knew it could be a strange game.”
As much anger as social media movements, Solano singled and walked twice in four trips, while Garlick hit a solo home run in the eighth inning for the only run and walked in three trips. The two represented five of the team’s eight players who reached the base.
• Before the game, the Twins saw Manaea go outfield for a pregame bullpen session. Initial reports indicated that the Giants’ left-hander threw up to 30 pitches during the practice session, which is the number pitchers typically throw between starts during their practice sessions. But after the game, Baldelli said Manaea only managed a “light bullpen” session and the Twins knew that didn’t eliminate him as San Francisco’s main option. From the Giants clubhouse, Manaea only threw eight to 10 pitches in a touch-and-feel session.
The Twins originally expected Manaea to pitch, so they released a lineup that had Solano starting before Joey Gallo. After Manaea’s session, the Twins revised their lineup, substituting Gallo for Solano and dropping Julien to fourth place (he was originally scheduled for the leadoff).
“We knew that (Manaea) would probably be an option,” Baldelli said. “If he throws the bullpen, don’t you think maybe? Secure. You might not think so, but you also look at who they have available and he’s certainly their best pick to pitch a lot of innings, basically. Is it also Beck? We knew he could throw a few innings too. But arrived at the end of the game? We knew it probably had something to do with Manaea.”
• Despite early moves, including the removal of one of the team’s hottest hitters (Kirilloff), several Twins said there had been no player complaints in the dugout and blamed the lack of questions on the coaching staff, who discussed their plan in the thoroughly communicated in the batsmen’s briefing on Monday. Several players were informed that despite starts, they might not sniff the plate depending on how San Francisco used its pitching team. One player said the squad had been conditioned by staff to anticipate substitutions due to the way the team’s strategy involves game-related decisions.
• Twins pitcher Tyler Mahle had successful surgery from Tommy John in Dallas, the team said.
(Photo by Bailey Ober: Jesse Johnson / USA Today)
