Umpire Tony Randazzo leaves Twins-Reds game with injury

CINCINNATI – The Twins and Cincinnati Reds had around a 15-minute delay in the middle of the third inning Tuesday after an injury to an umpire.

Tony Randazzo, who was behind the plate for the first 2½ innings, exited one inning after he took a foul ball to his mask. He was struck after a swing from Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, and he received a visit from a Reds trainer after Stephenson and Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers waved for the medical staff.

Randazzo briefly remained in the game after chatting with a trainer and the rest of the umpiring crew, but he did not return for the bottom of the third inning.

“I knew he’s already got some neck issues or something, already kind of hurting a little bit, then he wore one on the face,” Jeffers said. “It’s cool that he felt like he could tap out. There is no ego in that, wearing one off the face and continuing to stay in there. Hopefully, he’s good and I think he will be.”

The Twins pulled their players off the field during the lengthy delay while second base umpire Clint Vondrak retrieved his equipment from the umpire’s locker room before he moved behind the plate. The game resumed with a three-man umpiring crew.

Willi Castro was struggling to hit fastballs at the end of May, despite handling off-speed pitches just fine, and Twins assistant hitting coach Rayden Sierra suggested hitting off a pitching machine during his pregame work.

“I’m not going to lie, the machine and I were never friends,” Castro said. “I never liked the machine.”

Castro tried it for the first time in Seattle, following an off day, and it didn’t feel great. Some swings he made solid contact, and other swings he was frustrated with how much he struggled against the machine’s pitches.

Then he went into that night’s game and hit two homers, both on fastballs.

Since Castro started incorporating machine work in his pregame routine — a normal pitching machine — he hit .393 over his next 17 games with five homers, 10 RBI and a 1.185 OPS.

“I was seeing fastballs way slower,” Castro said. “I felt like I was on time with the fastball. It’s something I’m going to keep doing. The machine and I are friends now.”

Castro, an All-Star in 2024, has been a bright spot for the Twins’ offense over the last three weeks. He went hitless in Tuesday’s series opener against the Cincinnati Reds, but he’s batting .283 with seven homers, 17 RBI and a .358 on-base percentage in 52 games this year.

“My problem was not picking up the fastball,” he said. “Pitchers were going there every time. I added that machine work, and after that, I’ve been going off. ... It’s something I added to my routine that is a big game changer.”

Twins infielder Brooks Lee, a fellow switch hitter who holds his own 16-game hitting streak, marveled at Castro’s ability to hit well from both sides of the plate. It’s common for a switch hitter to feel good hitting in one batter’s box, but not the other side.

“He’s always telling me, ‘What did you do?’ ” Castro said. “I just added the machine. I’m hitting the machine both sides, the same amount of work both sides. That’s about it. You just trust yourself. When you’re doing good, you don’t think about anything.”

Bailey Ober, scheduled to face the Reds on Wednesday, won’t know how well his mechanical tweaks over the past week have worked until he’s pitching in another game.

“It’s going to be a work in progress for a while,” said Ober, who has permitted 11 hits (six homers) and 12 runs over his last 11 ⅔ innings. “Definitely feeling a lot better than I was a few weeks ago.”

Ober threw his mid-start bullpen session Sunday in Houston, and he said he was focused more on execution than his mechanics for the first time in a few weeks.

“Obviously, you have to take stuff with a grain of a salt,” he said. “I’ve had good games where I felt terrible. Like I pitched seven innings, 10 strikeouts, and I didn’t feel good doing it, but I was able to execute and keep guys off balance. I also had games where I felt amazing, and I did not pitch good.”

Etc.