Twins sweep Guardians in doubleheader, pull within 1½ games of American League Central lead

Bailey Ober’s shutdown streak and Louie Varland’s comeback campaign collided with the Guardians’ 2024 dominance over the Twins on Friday.

Ober’s run and Varland’s revival live on. And the Twins’ chances in the AL Central have sprung to life.

Ober pitched six scoreless innings in the first game of a split doubleheader at Target Field, earning Minnesota’s first victory of the season over the first-place Guardians 4-2.

In the second game, Varland came within one strike of completing five shutout innings, but Josh Naylor spoiled his start with a three-run homer. It didn’t matter, though, once Matt Wallner came to the rescue of his fellow East Metro native, hitting a three-run bomb of his own to rally the Twins to a 6-3 win and a sweep of the doubleheader.

“Come Thanksgiving, I’m going to tell everyone I’m thankful for Matt Wallner and Cole Sands,” Varland said. Sands relieved him and ended the inning. “The team had my back and things worked out.”

Even better than they could have imagined. On the day the Twins lost Joe Ryan from their starting rotation, starting pitchers gave the team hope it can survive without him.

“It’s tough when guys go down,” Ober said after improving to 12-5. “We’re hurting for them. We’re hoping they can get as healthy as they can.”

The Twins, who trailed the Guardians by six games just seven days ago, suddenly look awfully healthy in the standings. Minnesota has won seven of its last nine, while Cleveland has lost seven in a row. The result: the Twins trail the AL Central leaders by just 1½ games, the closest they have been to first place since May 13.

The Twins staked Varland to a lead, with Willi Castro stealing a run by stealing home. As Wallner took off for second base on a 3-2 pitch in the first inning, Cleveland starter Alex Cobb threw ball four to Royce Lewis. Catcher Austin Hedges, however, threw the ball pointlessly to second base and Castro, standing at third base, raced home before the Guardians could get the ball back to Hedges.

Ahead 2-0 in the fifth, Varland allowed a pair of singles and, with two outs and two strikes on Naylor, left a curveball over the middle of the plate. It landed in the right-field seats, Naylor’s 26th of the season, and Varland eventually trudged to the dugout trailing 3-2.

The Twins responded immediately, though, with a two-out rally. Castro and Trevor Larnach singled and Wallner delighted the crowd of 28,605 with a home run just a few rows from where Naylor’s landed. The crowd kept cheering until Wallner took a curtain call.

“Those types of swings change the game. We saw two of them basically in an inning, and they both turned the game right on its head,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Wally did that. He’s just dialed in, locked in, on fire — whatever you want to call it.”

The Twins added an insurance run in the seventh when Christian Vázquez pretended to break for home and caused Cleveland reliever Tim Herrin to flinch. A balk was called and Vázquez was awarded home. When Guardians manager Stephen Vogt protested, he was rewarded with his first career ejection.

In the first game, longtime Cleveland slugger Carlos Santana homered against his ex-teammates and Ryan Jeffers added his team-high 17th blast to support Ober, who recorded his ninth consecutive quality start of six or more innings and three or fewer runs.

“It’s pretty cool. Every time I step out on the field, that’s what I’m trying to do,” Ober said of the longest streak such streak by a Twin since Johan Santana reeled off 21 in a row in 2004. “I’m blessed and lucky enough to have that streak going, but it’s not too much on my mind right now. I’m just trying to pitch as best as I can every single day.”

Ober struck out nine, walked just two and gave up only two hits, both of them harmless singles by Will Brennan. In fact, Ober has surrendered only five hits and two runs in his previous 26 innings, an 0.69 ERA over that stretch.