Rotten June continues for Bailey Ober and Twins in 11-2 loss to Mariners

Bailey Ober sat at his locker with his glove in a mostly empty room, throwing a baseball in the air to himself, after reflecting on his nightmare six-run third inning that led to an 11-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Monday.

Several Twins hitters, after they went hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position over the first three innings, huddled for a chat next to their indoor batting cages with the team’s hitting coaches.

There are more than three months left in the regular season, but it’s slipping away from them. The Twins have lost 10 of their last 11 games, and they now own the fourth-worst record in the American League. It was the fourth consecutive game Twins pitchers gave up at least nine runs.

“I’s been a little on the repetitive side lately, not playing complete ballgames,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Just simply not playing winning baseball. We know that, but I’ll say it again: You have to walk around with your shoulders back, your chest out and continue the way you know how to work and prepare. If you’re good enough in this game, it does turn. It’s going to turn.”

The Mariners opened the third inning with two singles, one that didn’t leave the infield, plus Carlos Correa committed a throwing error. After a run scored on a sacrifice fly, Julio Rodríguez rocketed a low changeup to the second deck in left field for a two-run homer.

Cal Raleigh started another rally with a broken-bat single, a dribbler to left side of the mound. Byron Buxton made a diving catch in center, robbing Jorge Polanco of a potential double, but Ober’s next two pitches turned into a single and a three-run homer from Luke Raley.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” said Ober, who entered June with a 3.48 ERA and has yielded 27 hits and 23 runs over his last four starts. “It feels like they’re sitting on stuff or know it’s coming, just because I’m not used to the types of swings on some of my stuff. Maybe they’re adjusting and now it’s my turn to adjust back. I feel like it’s just one inning every single time and the rest of the game it’s fine.”

Ober thought he executed most of his pitches well, particularly the changeup that Rodríguez drilled for a homer, and his pitching mechanics are back to where he wants them. He completed seven innings and struck out seven without issuing a walk, but it felt meaningless after a six-hit, six-run third inning.

He retired nine straight batters after Raley’s homer broke the game open, before he surrendered a solo homer to Dominic Canzone in the sixth inning. Ober turned to watch the ball fly over the right field wall, then ran his right hand through his hair as Canzone trotted around the bases.

“[Ober] is a team guy, so he’s feeling it not just for himself, he’s feeling it for the group knowing he wants to go out and do good for this team,” Baldelli said.

BOXSCORE: Mariners 11, Twins 2

MLB standings

The Twins, meanwhile, stranded two runners on base in each of the first three innings. Ty France, a longtime Mariner, opened the second inning with a leadoff double, but righthander Bryan Woo struck out three of the next four batters.

Woo, who pitched around a pair of one-out singles in the third inning, struck out nine batters across six innings. He overpowered Twins hitters with his four-seam fastball, drawing whiffs on 14 of 24 swings against the pitch that averaged 96 mph.

“One of the best fastballs in the league,” said Twins catcher Christian Vázquez, noting the difficulty to distinguish his four-seam fastball from his sinker. “With two strikes, he was throwing a lot of four-seamers up, and that ball kept going up.”

Woo retired eight consecutive batters after the Twins’ two hits in the third inning before losing his shutout in the sixth inning through back-to-back homers from Trevor Larnach and Correa. Larnach pulled an inside fastball just beyond the 23-foot-tall wall in right-center field for his 11th home run of the season, and his second homer against Woo.

Six pitches later, Correa lifted a 97-mph sinker toward the Mariners’ bullpen past the fence in left-center field. It was Correa’s first home run since May 30 in Seattle, snapping a homerless streak that stretched 71 at-bats.

The Mariners added four runs in the ninth inning against Twins reliever Joey Wentz. Rodríguez hit a two-run, two-out double to left field, and Raleigh followed with a two-run homer, his league-leading 32nd home run of the season.