BALTIMORE (AP) — Bailey Ober was so good, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli just about ran out of superlatives while heaping praise upon the 6-foot-9 righty.
Ober allowed two hits over seven innings, Joey Gallo homered and Minnesota beat the Orioles 1-0 Saturday, extending Baltimore’s losing streak to a season-high four games.
Ober (5-4) gave up a second-inning single to Gunnar Henderson, hit Ryan O’Hearn with a pitch in the fourth and yielded a single to Anthony Santander in the seventh.
Those were the only runners to reach against Ober, who made it through seven innings for only the second time in 44 big league starts. He struck out eight and did not allow a runner past first base.
“That was a wild game and performance by Bailey,” Baldelli said. “I mean, that’s the best I’ve ever seen him throw. He was so locked in, especially with his off-speed pitches. He threw it in the zone, he mixed it out of the zone as well and got weak contact.
“He couldn’t have been more, uh, it was almost a perfect outing. Watching him go to work like that was great. I could just keep talking, but the guy was just phenomenal.”
Ober wasn’t ready to call it his best effort ever, but he couldn’t find too many flaws in his performance.
“Maybe I’ve had other games with better velocity and stuff overall, but execution-wise, that was pretty up there,” Ober said. “It felt great out there. I was able locate all four pitches today. Usually you don’t get games like that.”
He threw 85 pitches, most of them exactly where he wanted.
“I felt like I was on a roll from early in the game,” Ober said.
Griffin Jax worked the eighth and Jhoan Duran got three outs to complete the three-hitter and earn his 12th save in 14 chances.
Adley Rutschman reached in the ninth on a one-out infield hit and pinch runner Jorge Mateo was credited with stealing second after a replay overturned an out call by Jeremy Riggs. Max Kepler then made a superb sliding catch of Satander’s foul liner into the right-field corner before O’Hearn grounded out to end it.
Ober prevailed in a pitching duel with Kyle Bradish (4-4), who gave up one run and seven hits over six innings.
“I thought it was a really well-pitched game, both ends, but Ober was a little bit better,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “We didn’t have many hard-hit balls. Just really kept us off-balance with really good command.”
Gallo provided the game’s lone run in the fourth with his team-leading 15th homer, a drive to right on a 3-2 pitch. He’s gone deep in two straight starts and has four home runs in his last eight games.
Baltimore lost three straight only once this season before falling twice this week to visiting Cincinnati and scoring only one run in two defeats against the first-place Twins.
TOP SPOT
Minnesota’s Carlos Correa batted leadoff for the fourth time in his career and first time this season on Friday night, going 2 for 4 and scoring twice in an 8-1 victory. Calling it a “bold decision” to move Correa atop the lineup, Baldelli did it again Saturday. “At least on day one, we got the results that we were looking for from him and from that spot,” Baldelli said. “Now we move forward.”
ROSTER MOVES
The Orioles selected the contract of RH Chris Vallimont from Triple-A Norfolk and optioned LH Bruce Zimmermann to Norfolk. Zimmermann pitched two innings on Friday night, so the team needed a fresh arm in the bullpen. Vallimont’s first appearance will be his MLB debut.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins: 3B Royce Lewis left in the third inning with a strained left oblique muscle. “He’s going to go on the (injured list),” Baldelli said.
Orioles: RH Mychal Givens (shoulder inflammation) was moved to the 60-day DL. He last pitched on May 31.
UP NEXT
Twins: RH Sonny Gray (4-2, 2.67 ERA) starts the series finale Sunday. He’s winless in his last 10 games.
Orioles: LH Cole Irvin (1-3, 7.18) makes his second career start against the Twins. The first came with Oakland in May 2021. —