The Twins made things interesting again, but this time the late drama broke their way.
Minnesota jumped on Martín Perez right away after a short rain delay, putting up four runs in the first inning and then riding that cushion just enough to edge the Braves 4-2. It was a familiar script in one sense - the Twins scored four early, then went quiet for a stretch - but the ending was a lot kinder than it was yesterday against the Phillies, when that same kind of start turned into a loss after the bullpen let it slip.
Luke Keaschall sparked the first with a hustle double, and Perez quickly put himself in trouble by walking Byron Buxton and Ryan Jeffers to load the bases. Josh Bell followed with a two-run double that looked a lot stranger than the box score suggests.
The ball came off his bat at 70 MPH with a 44 degree launch angle, the kind of contact that usually becomes a routine out. Instead, it found enough luck to drop for extra bases.
Royce Lewis and Kody Clemens then singled on the next two pitches, pushing the lead to 4-0 before Perez finally found the bottom of the zone and shut the door on further damage.
Bailey Ober, meanwhile, had another shaky night on the mound. His fastball was sitting under 87 MPH, and that continued dip has become hard to ignore.
Ober has always leaned on command more than overpowering stuff, but the gap used to be easier to live with when his four-seamer was 92-93 MPH. That separation made his changeup play up.
Now the fastball is slow enough that hitters have extra time to adjust, and Atlanta’s lineup, as loaded as it is, took advantage by hitting the ball hard.
Most of those hard-hit balls didn’t turn into big damage early, though, because the Braves kept finding singles or running into outs. Ober settled in for a bit in the third and fourth, but the fifth inning got away from him.
Austin Riley singled, Drake Baldwin doubled, and Ronald Acuña Jr. brought both home with a hit that cut the Twins’ lead to 4-2. Derek Shelton then went to Taylor Rogers, who got Matt Olson and Michael Harris II to end the threat.
Minnesota had chances to separate from Atlanta, and the biggest one came in the eighth. Brooks Lee was hit by a pitch to start the inning, Kaelen Culpepper worked a long at-bat before lining a hard single, and Alan Roden followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt that the pitcher misplayed, loading the bases with nobody out.
But the inning fizzled fast. Keaschall and Buxton both popped out to first, and Jeffers grounded sharply to Ozzie Albies to end it.
The final two innings still had some white-knuckle moments. Jeff Hoffman allowed a one-out double to Matt Olson in the eighth, then watched Michael Harris hit a hard grounder to second.
Kody Clemens came up with a huge defensive play there, one of the best of his career, to keep Olson from scoring and get the second out. Hoffman then walked another Brave and brought up Albies as the go-ahead run, but Albies lifted a deep fly ball to left that stayed in the park.
Yoendrys Gomez made sure the ninth wasn’t boring either, walking the leadoff hitter before getting the next two outs. That set up Drake Baldwin, who nearly tied it with a drive that went 369 feet to Kody Clemens in left field, just short of the wall that measured about 370 feet.
No damage, just enough relief, and a Twins win that counts all the same. Minnesota held on against one of baseball’s best teams and moved a half-game out of the third Wild Card spot, which is currently a three-way tie between the Orioles, Rangers, and Tigers at 61-64.
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