Heading into tough stretch in rough shape, Twins ignoring the noise

Rocco Baldelli presented a picture of calm in his office on what otherwise felt like an unnerving, chaotic and jarring Friday morning.

“It’s going to be OK,” the Twins manager said.

His boss carried that same tone and message a short time later.

“We try to prepare ourselves as best we can for all of this,” President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey said.

All that was missing was some mood lighting and yacht rock playing in the background.

Baldelli even used a question about him suddenly having to rely on three young, mostly unproven starting pitchers in a pennant race as an opportunity to draw comparisons to child rearing.

“I had one child, and then I woke up one day and I had three children,” he said, referring to the birth of his twin boys last September. “It’s different, but it’s more of the same. It’s something that you can handle.”

Perfect response to an imperfect situation.

What a long, wild day at Target Field, a day that can be boiled down to three words: Doom, gloom, boom.

The Twins opened their most critical series of the season while announcing a laundry list of depressing injury updates that will put their organizational depth under a spotlight, then proceeded to win both games of a doubleheader against first-place Cleveland with some clutch performances.

To recap:

Carlos Correa is still not ready to play.

Joe Ryan’s pitching shoulder is injured worse than expected.

Brooks Lee needs time on the injured list.

Brock Stewart is headed for surgery.

All of which is hardly ideal, of course.

But then Bailey Ober played the role of firearm with an outing that provided a reminder that teams are capable of and charged with rising above injury disruptions.

“We’re just going to go out there and play our baseball,” Ober said after pitching six scoreless innings in a 4-2 win in Game 1.

His response on the mound was pitch perfect. Tough circumstances with injuries? Ignore the noise and pitch a gem to pull the Twins closer in the standings.

Matt Wallner provided the boom in the nightcap with a three-run home run that gave the Twins the lead for good after Cleveland had pulled ahead in the top of that inning on a three-run homer.

This is what good teams do. Respond to adversity. Pick each other up. Continue to fight and find a way.

The Twins are going to have to piece things together with a patchwork rotation and lineup to either A) Win the division or B) Make the playoffs.

Ober has been as consistent and reliable as indigestion at the State Fair. What comes after him will determine how this season gets defined.

The starters for the final three games of this series: Louie Varland, Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa — a trio that entered the weekend with a combined 44 starts and 249 innings pitched at the major league level.

“Other teams have versions of this, too,” Falvey said. “Even some of the best teams. We just need to find a way with the group that we have.”

This situation reinforces frustration over the team’s lack of action at the trade deadline. They needed pitching depth. They chose to stand still. Their youngsters will need to prove them right.

“At the deadline, there weren’t as many paths as I think maybe it appears there might be,” Falvey said. “You never know Joe Ryan is going to get hurt in the week following the deadline. We weren’t going to be able to replace a Joe Ryan-type pitcher at the deadline for sure.”

Maybe not Ryan, but a veteran who could have provided more security in case of injuries. Alas, what’s done is done, and complaining won’t win games.

It’s easy to fixate on who the Twins don’t have available, especially when injuries seem endless. But tough teams forge ahead through those moments. They did that twice on a day that began on an ominous note.