Ober’s second inning, as storm clouds rolled in and Minneapolis’ weather-warning siren began wailing just down the street, was somehow worse. The righthander, whose ERA jumped from 3.54 to 4.06 in just two innings, retired the first two Atlanta hitters on routine groundouts, bringing up the top of Atlanta’s cobbled-together lineup again.
And it was just a replay of the first inning.
Merrifield doubled this time into the right-field corner, Soler walked again, and Ozuna doubled down the left-field line, scoring Merrifield. Olson lined a double into right-center, scoring a pair of runs, and Travis d’Arnaud blasted Ober’s next pitch, a high changeup, into the third deck in left field, 439 feet away.
Ober quickly recorded the third out, just as the high winds heralded the arrival of nasty weather, as if Mother Nature wanted to make things even worse for the Twins. He stomped into the Twins’ clubhouse “and threw some stuff,” he said. “I was pretty angry.”
The Twins had scored a run of their own in the first inning, when Manuel Margot doubled, stole third — he’s the only Twin to successfully swipe third this season, and has done so trice — and scored on Jose Miranda’s sacrifice fly.
But down eight runs against Atlanta lefthander Max Fried, the Twins took awhile to get acclimated again after sitting around and watching it rain for 86 minutes. Fried retired the first 10 hitters he faced post-storm, half of them by strikeout, and finished five strong innings to earn his first win since June 23.