Twins beat Athletics 10-2 as Bailey Ober records first full game

OAKLAND, Calif. – Bailey Ober has dealt with control issues, speed issues and mechanical issues during his starts. On Saturday his biggest challenge was probably… staying awake?

Probably. Like a lopsided hockey game where all the action takes place on one side of the ice, the Twins hit and hit against the A’s on Saturday, pausing only occasionally to let Ober make a brief cameo on the mound, just because the rules require it.

The Twins scored eight runs and ten hits in the first two innings, Ober never faced more than four batters in his nine innings, and the Twins enjoyed a 10-2 win at Oakland Coliseum that had the intensity of a spring training exhibition .

But make no mistake, these stats certainly count: Carlos Correa, Jose Miranda and Manuel Margot each had three hits, Margot’s highlight was a three-run homer, and every starter except Byron Buxton reached base at least twice. Ten of the Twins’ first eleven batters reached base in the second inning, some of which were hot smashes across the park, and a number of broken-bat tweeners adding up when things go bad.

Ober, of course, was the beneficiary — or perhaps the offense was the beneficiary of a dominant performance by the tall righthander, who allowed solo home runs in each of the first two innings, a double to former teammate Brent Rooker in the fourth, and zero other baserunners, which retired the last 17 batters he faced.

BOX SCORE: Twins 10, Oakland 2

Most striking was Ober’s extreme efficiency. Throwing strikes on more than 70% of his pitches, Ober spent more than twice as much time watching from the dugout than he did throwing on the mound. It wasn’t until the second inning, when he struck out two batters, and the eighth, when he struck out all three, that Ober threw no fewer than thirteen pitches, and four times he headed back to the dugout without needing ten. .

On the other hand, A’s pitchers threw more than 13 in eight of the nine innings, including more than 30 three times. Starter JP Sears needed 50 to record four outs (and give up eight runs) and reliever Osvaldo Bido threw a staff-saving 106 pitches over five innings.

Waiter? A ho-hum 89 pitches thrown while recording his first full game.