In 11 starts between June 16 and Aug. 20, the Twins’ Bailey Ober pitched at least six innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs every time.
RandBall: Pressure on the Twins and concerning position groups for Vikings
Monday’s rain-soaked and stormy loss by the Twins at Target Field was damaging in a lot of ways. Meanwhile, the Vikings have some familiar (and some new) areas of concern heading into the season.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
August 27, 2024 at 4:13PM
Those are by definition “quality starts” and many were even better than just those minimum qualifications. Ober’s excellence for two months, and particularly since Joe Ryan’s injury a few weeks ago, has been a primary factor in the Twins staying in the AL Central and wild card race.
It has also put a tremendous amount of pressure on Ober to keep it up — a bubble that burst, at least for one start, when Atlanta tagged him for nine runs in just two innings of a stormy Monday loss.
As the Twins prepare to use three rookies in their rotation for the final month of the season, starts by Ober and Pablo Lopez are almost must-wins — something I talked about on Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
Even as they’ve tumbled to third place in the AL Central, the Twins have a very good chance of making the playoffs. But they can’t afford many games like Monday.
Here are four more things to know today:
- As the Vikings finalize their initial 53-man roster Tuesday, they have four areas of particular concern to me. I’m worried about the quality of their quarterback play given Sam Darnold’s spotty track record and J.J. McCarthy’s injury. I’m not sold on the interior of the offensive line, a story as old as time. The pass-catching group has elite talent, but depth is thin (particularly at the start of the year). And they are one veteran injury at cornerback away from potential trouble.
- Also on Tuesday’s podcast, I was joined out at the State Fair by three members of the championship PWHL Minnesota squad. I gently mentioned to them that I perhaps lost faith in their aspirations when they struggled at the end of the season. Star player Taylor Heise quipped with mock incredulity, “You’re saying that after we lost seven straight, you didn’t believe we were gonna win?”
- Travis and Jason Kelce reportedly signed a three-year podcast deal that is worth more than $100 million, which gives Daily Delivery a good target to shoot for in the future.
- If you haven’t read it yet, go check out Chip Scoggins’ townball tale of tragedy and hope.
Star Tribune prep writers David La Vaque and Jim Paulsen offer their predictions for the high school football championship games this weekend.
