Twins crush Mariners 10-3 behind four home runs and Bailey Ober's pitching

SEATTLE — The first three batters Bailey Ober faced on Tuesday all scored. But Ober had a good excuse: Pitching with a two-run lead was entirely new to him.

And he had an even better response: Ober didn't allow another run to score in his six innings. Well, with the help of his outfielders.

The first four hitters in the Twins' lineup combined for five singles, a double, a triple and three home runs, backing Ober — for a change — with plenty of run support. The result: A 10-3 win at T-Mobile Park, the most runs the Twins have scored for Ober in more than a year, and their first victory against a team with a winning record since July 1.

"Bailey did great. He had some mistakes in that first inning, but he settled down and did great," said infielder Kyle Farmer, who homered for the second time on this West Coast road trip. "He started throwing his fastball a little more and locating his splitter a little bit better. He fought through [trouble], and that's what you like to see."

Minnesota's uncharacteristic outburst started right away, with two first-inning runs driven in by a Max Kepler sacrifice fly and a two-out single by Willi Castro. Those two runs surpassed the single first-inning run the Twins had provided Ober in his first 14 starts — but the lead lasted only nine pitches. J.P. Crawford lined one of them for a single, and Eugenio Suárez smashed another one 408 feet, a game-tying home run.

"I was just leaving a lot of stuff in the middle of the plate," Ober explained about his difficult opening inning. "That's why they were getting hit. Just mistake pitches left in the middle of the plate."

The Mariners weren't done, either, piling up four more hits in that first inning. But they scored only one more run, thanks to a couple of misjudgments by third-base coach Manny Acta. Teoscar Hernández tried to score from first base on Ty France's double to left field, but Joey Gallo and Carlos Correa combined to throw him out at the plate. When the next batter, Mike Ford, singled, France was easily thrown out at home by Max Kepler.

"That was huge. That saved me big-time," Ober admitted. "If we don't get those two guys out, it might be a different story. I might be pulled after the first inning."

Instead, that close call seemed to shock Ober into effectiveness, because he was brilliant from that point on. Ober retired 15 of the remaining 17 hitters he faced, only once allowing a runner to reach second base. His secret was obvious: Ober threw first-pitch strikes to 21 batters on the night, and had an 0-2 count nine times.

"It was a real pivot. He continued to get ahead, he continued to throw strikes, and he wasn't afraid," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "That kind of outing, early on, can scare people out of the [strike] zone, and he didn't allow that to happen."

The night was a lot messier for Mariners rookie Bryan Woo, who hadn't allowed more than two runs in a start since his June 3 debut. After Edouard Julien led off the third inning with a single, Alex Kirilloff drilled a sinker on the outside corner into the Twins' bullpen, an opposite-field homer to retake the lead.

The Twins tacked on another run that inning when Woo walked Kepler and gave up another single to Willi Castro. When Castro stole second, catcher Cal Raleigh's throw bounced into center field, allowing Kepler to score.

The next inning, Julien drove a pitch over the wall in the right-field corner, and Kirilloff followed with a triple that Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic dropped on the warning track. Kepler then doubled him home, knocking Woo out of the game.

Julien, now hitting .500 in July, collected hits in left, right and center fields. "I don't know if it's the perfect way to hit, but it worked pretty well tonight," the rookie said. "I can't think about it too much, because I don't want my head to get bigger. I just want to come out every day, work harder than the day before, and go from there."

The onslaught continued against Seattle's bullpen, with three singles producing a sixth-inning run against lefthander Taylor Saucedo, and Farmer and Correa crushing ninth-inning home runs against Ty Adcock. Correa's home run seemed particularly sweet for the Twins' shortstop, considering how loudly most of the 28,141 in attendance booed his every at-bat.

Correa, hitting leadoff, finished the game with a single and home run in six at-bats, while Julien homered and singled twice. Kirilloff, batting third with Byron Buxton out of the lineup, contributed a homer, triple, single and walk, while cleanup-hitter Kepler chipped in with a single, double, walk and sacrifice fly.

The total by the top of the order: 10-for-18, with nine runs scored and six driven in, helping the Twins become one of a dozen MLB teams to reach double figures on Tuesday. They've scored 36 runs in the first five games since the All-Star break.

"We've got a good thing going right now. It's lot of fun and we're putting good at-bats together," Farmer said. "[Julien] should be in the race for Rookie of the Year, honestly. We're on all cylinders right now [and] we've got to just keep it going."