Twins' Bailey Ober aims to continue strong showings vs. Guardians

Following a rough season-opening performance, Bailey Ober has been exceptional for the Minnesota Twins.

And simply stellar against the Cleveland Guardians during his career.

Ober will eye a fifth straight winning decision this season while trying to continue his success against the Guardians on Saturday evening when the teams meet in Cleveland.

Ober (4-1, 3.77 ERA) opened his fourth major league season by allowing eight runs and nine hits, including three homers, in 1 1/3 innings of Minnesota's 11-0 loss at Kansas City on March 31. However, the right-hander has moved on nicely from that effort by giving up 10 runs over 41 2/3 innings in his last seven starts.

"Just execute some pitches early and put away guys late," Ober said.

He allowed just one hit and struck out a season-high 10 without a walk over 6 1/3 scoreless innings of the Twins' 5-1 victory at Toronto on Sunday.

"I told him, ‘I think it's absolutely one of your best outings that I've ever seen,'" Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "And he's had a ton of great outings."

Ober certainly has been great while going 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA in five career starts vs. Cleveland. He's been downright dominant in the last three against the Guardians, allowing eight hits and two walks while striking out 14 over 18 scoreless innings.

Meanwhile, Cleveland star Jose Ramirez has fared well against Ober compared to his teammates, going 3-for-11 with a double. Ramirez hit a tiebreaking solo homer off Twins closer Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning of Friday's series opener that sent AL Central-leading Cleveland to a 3-2 victory.

Ramirez is batting .311 with half of his 10 homers this season and 13 RBIs in the last 12 games.

"Whenever he's up, we kind of expect it at this point," Cleveland teammate David Fry said of Ramirez's game-changing heroics.

While Cleveland has won four of five games overall and 11 of its last 14 at home, the Twins have totaled only three runs during a four-game slide. Alex Kirilloff ended Minnesota's 28-inning scoreless drought with a third-inning homer Friday, but the Twins fell to 0-3 against the Guardians in 2024.

Teammate Max Kepler is batting .305 for the season and is 1-for-3 with a homer against scheduled Guardians starter Logan Allen (4-2, 5.56 ERA).

The left-hander yielded six hits and a walk over six scoreless innings during Sunday's 7-0 road win over the Chicago White Sox. It was a needed rebound after Allen allowed seven runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings against Detroit in his previous start.

"That's all you can think about after a bad outing is trying to right your wrongs and give your team a chance to win," Allen said.

Allen is 3-2 with a 2.89 ERA on the road in 2024 but sports a 9.87 ERA and allowed six homers in four starts at home.

He went 1-0 with a 3.09 ERA against the Twins in two starts last season. Minnesota's Byron Buxton is 0-for-2 with a walk against Logan and 0-for-23 in his last eight games vs. Cleveland but is slated to return Saturday from a knee issue that's kept him out since May 1.

Fry, who hit a two-run homer for one of his three hits Friday, is batting .400 (14-for-35) in his last 13 games.