Bailey Ober pitched four shutout innings for the Twins on Monday night against San Francisco, giving up only one hit in a span of 13 batters.
One big problem, though: Those shutout innings were the second through the fifth. With the Target Field crowd barely having time to find their seats, the Giants already had a four-run lead in the top of the first before Ober could record an out.
That bad start, plus an absence of timely hitting from the home team, doomed the Twins to a 4-1 loss to the Giants in the opener of a three-game series in front of an announced crowd of 16,627.
"It's not the way you ever want to start a ballgame, both from his perspective and from a team perspective,'' Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after his team lost for the fifth time in seven games and fell to 25-23.
San Francisco (23-24) used its pitching strategy well, with opener John Brebbia throwing a 1-2-3 first before being replaced by lefty Sean Manaea (2-2), who gave up no runs and three hits while striking out eight over 3⅔ innings. Tristan Beck worked 2⅔ innings, Tyler Rogers two-thirds and Scott Alexander one for the save.
The Twins, who had only four hits, struck out 16 times — adding to their MLB-leading strikeout total — and went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, scored their only run on Kyle Garlick's leadoff homer to left off Beck in the eighth.
"We just couldn't get anything going when the time came,'' Baldelli said. "We got some guys on, we had a few baserunners, a few good at-bats here and there. Not nearly enough today.''
The issues started right away for Ober (3-1), who opened the game by walking LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski before J.D. Davis lined a shot over Willi Castro's head in left field to score Wade. Up came cleanup hitter Michael Conforto, who blasted a three-run homer to center for a 4-0 Giants lead.