In 11 starts between June 16 and Aug. 20, the Twins’ Bailey Ober pitched at least six innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs every time.
Those are by definition “quality starts” and many were even better than just those minimum qualifications. Ober’s excellence for two months, and particularly since Joe Ryan’s injury a few weeks ago, has been a primary factor in the Twins staying in the AL Central and wild card race.
It has also put a tremendous amount of pressure on Ober to keep it up — a bubble that burst, at least for one start, when Atlanta tagged him for nine runs in just two innings of a stormy Monday loss.
As the Twins prepare to use three rookies in their rotation for the final month of the season, starts by Ober and Pablo Lopez are almost must-wins — something I talked about on Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
Here are four more things to know today: