Bailey Ober, Josh Donaldson both stay hot as Twins top Tigers to clinch winning August

DETROIT — By winning a game scheduled for July, the Twins clinched a winning August. Now Bailey Ober hopes he gets a chance to do it again in September, too.

Ober gave up two runs in six innings, Josh Donaldson homered for the fifth time in 10 days and the Twins made their 20-hour trip to Michigan worthwhile, walking away with a 3-2 victory in a rainout-makeup game over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. In doing so, the last-place Twins improved to 14-12 in August, their first winning month of the season.

And Ober, the 6-foot-9 rookie righthander, started four of those victories.

"We were commenting in the dugout, he's just a guy that knows when he has to make a pitch in an at-bat," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Sometimes it's the first pitch of the at-bat. Sometimes it's when you get to 3-1, 3-2. But when he does have to make a pitch and not put himself behind the 8-ball, he finds a way to do it because he can execute."

BOXSCORE: Twins 3, Detroit 2

Ober struck out five, didn't walk a batter, and missed shutting out the Tigers by a couple of feet, maybe inches. On a 3-2 count in the third inning, he gave up a solo home run to Derek Hill that barely cleared the fence, and after a leadoff double by Harold Castro in the fifth inning, Ober gave up Zack Short's popup to shallow center field that fell just beyond Andrelton Simmons' diving attempt at a catch, scoring Castro.

"The 3-2 home run to the nine-hole [batter] is something that might not happen every single time. I'll live with that, live with solo shots," Ober said. In the fifth inning, "I was making good pitches. They got bloop singles on them, and happened to score a run."

It doesn't happen much lately. Ober's ERA for the month: 1.79, with 26 strikeouts and only three measly walks.

"You can see that [Ober] is no longer sneaking up on the league in any way," Baldelli said. "The league has already tried to adjust to him in some ways, and he's still finding ways to get it done."

How much longer will he be allowed to? That's a ticklish question for the Twins, leery of overworking a player who has had arm injuries in the past and who didn't pitch at all in 2020. Monday's start gave him 90 innings between St. Paul and the Twins, and Baldelli has said the team is considering how much more to use him.

"I'm going to keep going every fifth day as long as they have me up here," Ober said. "They haven't really told us anything yet. But I'm feeling really good. Feeling good enough to finish this year out."

Donaldson is feeling good too. "Right now, I just feel more relaxed at the plate, really since I've been in Minnesota," the 2015 AL MVP said. "This is like the first time since I've been here that I've started to get dialed in, where a majority of my [batted] balls are getting hit well."

The Twins scored in only one of Detroit starter Casey Mize's six innings, but it was enough. Byron Buxton led off the fourth inning with a double, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when Jorge Polanco poked a single over a drawn-in infield. Donaldson followed by belting a home run 430 feet to straightaway center, his 21st of the season.

Jorge Alcala pitched two innings in relief of Ober, giving up two hits, but Alexander Colome endured another trying inning before ultimately holding the Tigers scoreless to earn his 10th save, the seventh time in his career he has reached double digits.

After two quick ground outs to open the ninth, Colome fielded back-to-back dribblers in front of the plate by Eric Haase and Castro, and both times threw wildly to first base. Castro was originally called out, but video replay overturned the call, forcing Colome — fortunate to avoid his seventh blown save of the season — to retire pinch hitter Robbie Grossman on a routine fly ball to end the game.