Twins, Bailey Ober outduel Clayton Kershaw and Dodgers in 5-1 victory

LOS ANGELES — Dodger fans have come to expect performances like this when Clayton Kershaw pitches: A fastball good enough to make the breaking pitches swing-and-miss deadly, a strike-throwing performance that gains momentum as it goes on, a master class in working out of trouble. You know, Hall of Fame stuff.

But the 52,159 who sold out Dodger Stadium didn't seem to enjoy Tuesday's demonstration quite as much. Probably because it was Bailey Ober who looked the part.

Ober was impeccable when it mattered, limiting the Dodgers to six hits over six innings, coming within one bad bounce of keeping the National League's highest-scoring team off the scoreboard, and becoming the first Twins pitcher since Carlos Silva in 2005 to beat the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

The final score was 5-1 Twins, an efficiency, if not an outcome, that Kershaw, who had not been charged with a loss on his home field since June 16, 2021, could surely appreciate.

"It just shows how different we are — our mentality and who we are becoming as a team," Byron Buxton said after reaching base three times, scoring twice and stealing a pair of bases for the first time since 2018. "We didn't go out there today like, 'Oh, Kershaw's pitching.' It was like, 'They're facing the Twins. … You've got to pitch to us. We nasty. We dangerous.' And once we get it clicking, it's going to be way worse."

The three-time Cy Young winner wasn't up to his usual standards in his second career start against the Twins — he memorably was lifted after pitching seven no-hit innings in his 2022 debut at Target Field last April — but he too put up a fierce battle. Kershaw needed 90 pitches to get through four innings, and while he induced 17 swing-and-misses with them, he also made his life much harder by putting the leadoff hitter on base three times.

It cost him in the first inning, when Donovan Solano — who owns a career .400 average (12-for-30) against Kershaw — opened the game with a double, then scored when Kyle Farmer, who once caught Kershaw during a rehab assignment in the minors, lined a two-out single.

In the fourth, Michael A. Taylor walked to open the inning, then advanced to second base on an odd balk by Kershaw, who tried unsuccessfully three times to pick Taylor off first base, one more than the new pitch-clock rules allow.

"I think he figured once he got to two [attempts], that [Taylor] was just going to run on the next pitch, first-move," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "I think he was willing to take the risk there and say, 'Forget this, I'm not just going to let him walk to second base.' "

When Joey Gallo and Willi Castro followed with singles, though, Taylor scored their second run off the nine-time All-Star.

"He left a lot of curveballs in the dirt, honestly. That's his chase pitch," Farmer said. "We had some really good, long at-bats and got his pitch count up."

The Twins tacked on another run when Shelby Miller relieved Kershaw in the fifth. Buxton drew a leadoff walk and then, as he had after an infield hit in the third inning, quickly and easily stole second base, the third two-steal game of his career and first since April 12, 2018.

The steal — one of four in the game by the Twins, matching their total for all of April — was important, because Buxton advanced to third on a ground ball by Farmer, then scored on Ryan Jeffers' squeeze bunt.

Buxton scored again in the ninth, but this time he only had to jog, because Farmer launched a Justin Bruihl slider into the left-field stands, his third homer of the year.

That was more than enough for Ober, who struck out six, walked one and threw a career-high 102 pitches, and the Twins' shorthanded bullpen.

"It felt pretty good. When you're going head-to-head against arguably one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and you come out of there with a win, it feels pretty good," Ober said. "It's pretty cool just to share the same mound as that guy."

The Twins' starter, who opened the season in Class AAA, also allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base three times, each with a double, yet made big pitch after big pitch to escape unscathed.

Well, almost. In the fifth, after a Miguel Rojas double and two quick outs, Freddie Freeman lifted a shallow fly ball into center field. Taylor got there in time to glove it as he dove, but the impact with the ground knocked it loose, and Rojas scored Los Angeles' lone run.

"Him being able to get out of jams that he got himself into and making those good pitches, that shows how good he really is, and who he is as a pitcher," Buxton said. "That's a bulldog mentality."

Brock Stewart, Jovani Moran and Griffin had it too, though Stewart and Moran loaded the bases in the seventh inning with a David Peralta double and walks to Mookie Betts and Freeman.

But Moran snuffed the threat when pinch-hitter Chris Taylor lifted a fly ball similar to Freeman's earlier one. This time, the Twins' Taylor reached it, held on, and ended the inning and the Dodgers' final threat, allowing the Twins to end an eight-game, 18-year losing streak on this field.

"That blows my damn mind!" Buxton marveled. "But putting ourselves in a chance to win the series here is big, especially after hearing something like that. That's definitely something big."