Bailey

Ober

Ober has been battling through a hip impingement since April, and while his spin rates and velocity held close to normal, he was unable to recover well between outings. The Twins finally decided to put Ober on the IL, and he recently “received medicine to eliminate the hip inflammation and expects to be fine in a few days.” Once the inflammation subsides, the Twins hope that Ober can “begin to ramp up starting Tuesday or Wednesday.” If Ober is able to throw without pain and with his normal mechanics, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him put together a strong stretch to finish the season.

Ober has been shelled in his last few outings, and it’s possible the hip was a major culprit. He’ll be out through at least the All-Star break, but it seems likely he’ll need a rehab assignment and then return to the rotation at some point near the end of July — assuming no setbacks, of course.

Look at the bright side: it would have been six homers had the game been played at Fenway or Wrigley rather than at Comerica. It just doesn’t look like that one mph Ober lost off his fastball is coming back, though in truth, the slider and changeup have been bigger problems for him. Maybe he’ll figure something out, but those in shallow leagues can’t keep waiting on him. He’ll take a 5.28 ERA into his next start against the Rays.

Ober pitched better than this line indicates. Six of the seven runs allowed came in the third inning — five of them on homers — and outside of that frame the 6-foot-9 right-hander kept Seattle off balance. All that being said, you give up six runs in an inning, you’re gonna have a bad time. Ober will try and erase that frame from memory and lower an unsightly 4.90 ERA against the Tigers on Saturday.

The game never resumed after the delay, so it goes down as Ober’s second career complete game. The right-hander struck out five and walked none, but he gave up nine hits. Maybe that’s the norm for him this year, but he was unluckier than usual tonight; he allowed just six hard-hit balls and only two over 100 mph, and the 371-foot homer he surrendered would have left only 12 ballparks. The loss leaves him 4-4 with a 4.54 ERA ahead of a start against the Mariners.

Ober gave up four of the six homers the Rangers hit in a 16-3 shellacking. The 29-year-old also issued a whopping six walks, so this could have gone lot worse if you think about it. It’s still an ugly outing, and one that pushes Ober’s record to 4-3 and his ERA up to 4.40. Aaron Gleeman recently reported that Ober has been dealing with (in Ober’s words) “some left hip stuff” since spring training. He’ll need to have much better command pitching in Cincinnati next week to be a worthwhile play.

At first, Ober was cruising. It took him just 37 pitches to get through his first three innings and it felt like he was on his way to a gem. Yet, Addison Barger and the heart of the Blue Jays’ lineup had other ideas as they tagged him for seven hard-hit balls between the third and sixth innings. They had 12 hard-hit balls in total and it should be noted that Ober’s fastball velocity was down a little more than a full tick. He’ll try to right the ship next time out against the Rangers.

Ober was pulled with runners on first-and-third with no outs in the fourth inning after throwing a whopping 97 pitches. Louis Varland struck out the next three to keep his ERA at 3.48. He allowed a two-run homer to Cal Raleigh, but while he wasn’t efficient and put the leadoff batter on in four-of-five innings, that was the only blemish in terms of run prevention. Ober will look to get deeper with similar results against the Athletics in Sacramento; scheduled for Thursday.

Ober gave up seven hits, walked one and struck out three. The 29-year-old right-hander’s strikeouts are down considerably. He has a 19 percent strikeout percentage compared to his career 24.9 percent strikeout percentage. That’s a contributing factor to his 4.45 xFIP, which is over a full run higher than his 3.41 ERA. Ober is still worth starting next weekend against the Mariners on the road.

It’ll be Chris Paddack drawing the starting assignment for the nightcap affair. This is all weather permitting, of course. Ryan will take the ball when Monday’s suspended game resumes in the top of the fourth inning with the Twins leading 2-1. It’s a fluid situation, but for the moment, it sounds like both Ryan and Paddack will work the twin bill. Bailey Ober went three innings at the outset of Monday’s series opener before it was called due to rain.