Ober bests Kershaw as Twins get 1st Dodger Stadium win since '05

LOS ANGELES -- The Twins needed Bailey Ober to dig deep and blow by his career-high pitch count as he faced the heart of the Dodgers’ lineup on Tuesday -- and he took the opportunity to make a statement.

The setting: Dodger Stadium. The opponent: Clayton Kershaw. And even beyond that, the Twins desperately needed a lengthy outing out of Ober to protect a depleted bullpen after Monday’s 12-inning marathon.

And as James Outman’s fly ball settled into the waiting glove of right fielder Joey Gallo to complete the sixth inning of the Twins’ 5-1 victory, Ober yelled into the Southern California air, his work complete.

“The whole atmosphere of being at Dodger Stadium against this type of team, to be able to go out there and throw a quality start feels pretty good,” Ober said. “I felt like I was floating a little bit, trying to feel my legs.”

Behind Ober’s six strong innings of one-run ball and gutty efforts from the less proven elements of Minnesota’s bullpen, the Twins snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Dodgers -- dating back to 2014 -- and they claimed their first win at Dodger Stadium since ‘05 and their second in franchise history.

It’s the second time this season these Twins have broken one of those long droughts against a powerhouse team -- the other being their first season series win over the Yankees since 2001 -- and that just served as another example of the refrain this team has been claiming all along: These Twins just feel different, and all these data points just help their confidence grow.

“It just shows how different we are -- not just the teams of the past, but just our mentality and who we are becoming as a team,” Byron Buxton said. “We didn't go out there today like, 'Oh, Kershaw's pitching.' It was like, 'Oh, [snap], they're facing the Twins.' That's a whole different mentality now.”

The Twins handed Kershaw his first home loss since June 16, 2021, chasing the likely future Hall of Famer after coaxing 90 pitches out of him in four innings and scoring three times on RBI singles by Kyle Farmer and Willi Castro and a safety squeeze bunt from catcher Ryan Jeffers. And Ober simply outpitched Kershaw on a day his team really needed it.

It wasn’t the cleanest effort from the right-hander, who began the season in Triple-A because there hadn’t been room for him on the Opening Day roster, but he made big pitches when he really needed to, holding the Dodgers to one run despite allowing leadoff doubles in the first, fourth and fifth innings.

In the first, Ober got a popout from Max Muncy and a flyout from J.D. Martinez. In the fourth, the Dodgers tried a double steal and the Twins executed a perfect relay from Jeffers to second baseman Donovan Solano back home to nab the final out. In the fifth, Ober got Jason Heyward to fly out after Freddie Freeman’s bloop RBI single.

“What good pitchers do is they're able to zone in and lock it in when it matters,” Jeffers said.

“Him being able to get out of the jams that he got himself in and making those good pitches, that shows how good he really is and who he is as a pitcher on the mound,” Buxton said. “That's a bulldog mentality.”

But the sixth inning was just as significant. Ober had to face Muncy -- coming off a two-homer performance in the series opener -- along with Martinez and Outman, the rookie phenom. Ober blew past Muncy with the changeup that was crisp all night, then he dispatched Martinez with his fastball and got Outman to fly out to right. If Ober had allowed a baserunner, he’d probably have come out of the game.

Instead, he gritted it through to the finish, throwing a career-high 102 pitches -- and often-wild youngster Jovani Moran had an equally gritty escape against the heart of the lineup in the seventh inning that put the Dodgers’ best opportunity to rest.

The offense has come and gone at times, but it’s that pitching that has made the difference for these Twins. With their sixth starter on the mound and their highest-leverage relievers down, the Twins still delivered.

“Playing in stadiums that are rocking and 50,000 people going crazy for the home team … you can go out there and you can show yourself something,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think our guys have really enjoyed playing here the last two days and competing against this team.”