Bailey Ober bitten by long ball again as Twins lose rubber game to Diamondbacks

Bailey Ober threw 101 pitches Sunday, and there was only one that he really wished he had back.

Ober, who has battled his pitching mechanics almost all season and thrown with lower velocity, struck out a season-high nine batters across six innings. He yielded four hits and zero walks.

The one exception came in the fourth inning. With two runners on base and two outs, Ober surrendered a go-ahead, three-run homer to Diamondbacks catcher James McCann on a first-pitch fastball, and the Twins never closed their deficit in a 6-4 loss to Arizona at Target Field.

The Twins loaded the bases during each of the last two innings. After three straight batters reached with two outs in the ninth, Matt Wallner flew out to right field against lefthander Kyle Backhus.

In the eighth, Carson McCusker, who accumulated three at-bats since he returned to the majors Sept. 7, entered as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded against lefty Jalen Beeks. McCusker, in a 2-0 count, bounced a ground ball to shortstop to end the threat.

The Twins, who lost two of their three games to the D-backs, have dropped nine of their past 10 series. They have a 3-10 record in September and an 18-35 record since the All-Star break.

Manager Rocco Baldelli gave a quick speech to players after Sunday’s defeat, telling them it’s one or two plays that separates them from winning those types of games.

Ober (5-8) pitched into trouble in the fourth inning when he hit Blaze Alexander with a pitch and he gave up a double to Jordan Lawlar on a liner down the third-base line. Ober struck out Alek Thomas, which led to a brief delay when the D-backs questioned whether catcher Mickey Gasper caught a foul tip without the ball hitting the dirt.

Ober’s first pitch to McCann was an 89-mph fastball that was bashed to the bleachers in left field. Ober turned to watch the ball and bent at the waist.

“I think just the wrong pitch to McCann,” Ober lamented afterward. “He’s pretty aggressive at the plate. I just left that one over the middle too much, knowing that he was going to swing.”

Ober, who threw more changeups than fastballs and drew a lot of whiffs with his sweeper, retired his final seven batters after McCann’s homer. But it already ruined his outing. He gave up a run in the second inning, too, on an RBI single by McCann after a two-out double by Thomas.

“I would like to do that every time. Six innings, nine strikeouts sounds good,” Ober said. “Like last week, I feel like I was able to repeat my stuff. Changeup and sweepers were really good today. Fastball was pretty good today as well, outside of that one pitch that I missed.”

MLB standings

The Twins pulled within one run twice. Wallner and Gasper hit solo homers in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, but the D-backs kept answering with a run of their own. Tim Tawa hit a two-out RBI single off Génesis Cabrera in the seventh and Thomas drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth after Arizona loaded the bases with no outs against Twins reliever Michael Tonkin.

“I feel like we were in every game and competed,” said Wallner, who reached 40 RBI after hitting his 22nd home run. “Just taking that and finishing strong and just building for next year like everyone as a group, individually. It can never hurt.”

In the bottom of the eighth, Brooks Lee drew a two-out walk with two runners on base against Anthony DeSclafani, who was on the Twins roster last year but underwent season-ending elbow surgery before the season started. McCusker pinch hit for Gasper against Beeks, but he failed to add to his two career hits.

The Twins, who had three hits and scored two unearned runs against Arizona starter Nabil Crismatt (3-0), left 10 men on base and produced one hit in nine at-bats with a runner in scoring position.