MINNEAPOLIS -- More than most pitchers, Bailey Ober can be effective without elite fastball velocity. But even for Ober, there’s a point where diminished velocity is tough to overcome.
Ober breezed through his first three innings but ran into trouble after that on Friday, allowing five runs in seven innings as the Twins fell to the Blue Jays, 6-4, at Target Field. Ober’s average four-seam/sinker velocity for the night came in at 89.3, the lowest of his career.
He explained that he feels fine -- a contention certainly backed up by the Twins’ willingness to pitch him seven innings -- but that his mechanics are out of whack. At 6-foot-9, it’s easy to get out of alignment.
“My mechanics just do not feel good right now,” he said. “Just very not smooth and disjointed. So I’m trying to work on that. I’ve been putting a lot of time in and work throughout the weeks, especially after my previous start in Seattle where it really kind of ticked down. And then today, obviously, it ticked down a little bit too. Just trying to figure it out.”
He feels he has more or less identified what’s going wrong in his delivery, but that it’s more difficult to fix than to diagnose.
“It’s harder to change patterns that are ingrained in how you’ve been throwing,” Ober said. “It’s all about just getting reps and moving the right way. Eventually it’ll be muscle memory kind of taking over. But if you’re throwing for an extended period of time, kind of the wrong way, your body is going to revert to that.”
It was the second consecutive start under 90.0 mph for Ober, who allowed only two runs in Seattle on Saturday but was gone after four-plus innings due to an inflated pitch count. Those are the only two times in his career he has not averaged 90 mph or more.
This time Ober was certainly efficient. Save for a bloop two-run single by Bo Bichette with the infield in, the final line might have looked a good bit different. But for now, Ober is still searching.
Lewis heating up
One Twins player who is not searching is Royce Lewis, who enjoyed his best game in months on Friday, going 3-for-3 with a walk, a double, an RBI and a run scored. It was his first three-hit game since June 19, 2024, and kept up his recent momentum.
Since being held out of the lineup Monday, Lewis has reached base at least twice in each of his three starts. He’s 5-for-11 with two doubles and three walks in that span. He worked extensively with the coaching staff that day to refine things, and it seems he’s seeing results.
“I don’t know what it had to do with, but I just didn’t feel like I was myself, is the best way to put it,” said Lewis of his prior slump. “Sometimes you need to take a day. The next day my obliques were killing me because I swung about 2,000 times, but sometimes you need that day, especially in a long season like this.”
Jeffers ejected
Ryan Jeffers took the first ejection of his Major League career on Friday, getting tossed after arguing a called third strike in a pinch-hit appearance in the eighth inning. Jeffers took a 3-2 pitch that appeared to be below the strike zone and was called out.
If he had drawn the walk, the Twins would have had bases loaded with no outs. Instead it was first and third with one out, a very different circumstance. Minnesota scored one run in the inning but no more.
“I think he’s unhappy with the call, rightfully so, and that’s part of the game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You’d like to say something else or something really in-depth. It’s a close pitch. It looks like a ball. It would give us bases loaded with nobody out. … You want to get that call, and we didn’t get the call today.”
Twins tidbits
Travis Adams was recalled from Triple-A St. Paul on Friday, providing the Twins’ bullpen with a long-relief option it did not previously have. Kody Funderburk was optioned to make room. … Carlos Correa was held out of the lineup for a third straight day due to back tightness but said that he expects to be able to play Saturday.