The two starting pitchers tasked with taking the mound for the Twins over the weekend found themselves at a similar point in having something to prove after stumbling mightily in their season debuts.
Bailey Ober needed to prove that the raw stuff of his offerings would regress to normal now that there’s been more time to recover from the illness that killed his first start. Chris Paddack needed to prove that his raw stuff would lead to outs after surrendering eight earned runs in his debut last Monday.
Would there be consequences if either failed to accomplish these goals? Probably not, given that the club is in the second week of their season. However, as the club tries to find its footing after a slow start, it must rely on the starting rotation as a cornerstone of its success. And it’s hard to do that when 40% of that group starts off this unstable.
This weekend, Ober and Paddack tried to show that the Twins can lean on them.
Bailey Ober
For Ober, his start got off on the wrong foot. He left a second-pitch slider up in the zone, and Jose Altuve crushed it over the left field fence for a home run. But for most of the outing, Ober found a way to dance through raindrops. It was pretty clear early on that we wouldn’t see the front-of-the-rotation version that would cruise through seven-plus innings. Still, he had a chance to show that he’s better than the version we saw last weekend.
Four innings and 87 pitches later, Ober was done for the day. He was short of where he’d probably like to be while simultaneously accomplishing what fans have been clamoring for — a start that keeps the team in the game for as long as possible.
“We know he’s a resilient guy and a resilient pitcher, and he always finds ways to work through situations,” manager Rocco Baldelli said in Saturday’s postgame media scrum. “He just continued to work. And again, got us through what he could get us through today.”
For the most part, Ober’s offerings looked like they were trending in the right direction throughout this start. His fastball reached up to 92.5 MPH at one point, and aside from that Altuve solo shot, his slider was consistently out of the strike zone, complementing his fastball.
So it remains to be seen if Ober is back to his 2024 ways, where he was arguably Minnesota’s best and most consistent starting pitcher. But Saturday’s performance against the Houston Astros shows he’s trending in the right direction.
Chris Paddack
Paddack’s opportunity also flirted with disaster. The first two pitches of the game were fastballs left up in the zone, and Houston smacked them for singles. Paddack allowed the lead runner to score before wiggling out of the jam with some weak contact. A long break in the bottom of the first inning allowed ample time to catch his breath. However, Paddack again left a fastball up for another leadoff single. And yet again, he induced two light grounders to get out of the inning.
Another long bottom of the inning gave him another break, allowing him to have a painless, quick third inning of action, after which it looked like he had found a rhythm. For the next two innings, Paddack’s patented changeup that had eluded him in his first start became a nasty weapon.
Then the pendulum swung, derailing what was looking like an impressive bounce-back effort for a veteran who needed it. He allowed the first five batters of the fifth inning to reach safely. Suddenly, the tying run was stepping to the plate.
“I’m hard on myself. I just got to be better at the end of the day,” Paddack said after Minnesota’s painful 9-7 loss to the Astros on Sunday. “I’m just not pleased with where my stuff’s at right now, and I’ve got to continue to trust the process. And I owe Cole (Sands) a steak dinner.”
So, while Ober proved that his stuff was mostly back to his expected levels after four innings of one-run ball, Paddack’s outlook may not be as rosy, even given that his innings were considerably more efficient. His raw stuff was good enough to get out of early jams, but the Astros were catching on once they got their initial looks on him.
These two pivotal starts embodied life for the Minnesota Twins at this moment in time. Both were shorter than was probably desired but kept the game competitive. Time will tell if the club’s season can recover after an early deficit like Ober, or if they’ll hang their head after a tough loss like Paddack.
