Bailey Ober learned Friday that the best medicine is to stay hitless for as long as possible.
Ober pitched a no-hitter into the sixth inning while battling a stomach problem, Carlos Santana Howred and the Minnesota Twins extended their winning streak to five games, defeating the Angels 5-3 at Angel Stadium.
Santana drove in two runs and Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers and Willie Castro had RBIs to help the Twins win the opener of a three-game series and six-game road trip.
Ober (2-1) was held to two runs and three hits in 7 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts to continue his recent dominance after giving up eight runs and nine hits in 1 1/3 innings of his season debut against Kansas City. In his four starts since then, Ober has a 1.47 ERA over 24 1/3 innings while giving up a total of 11 hits.
“I think you loosen up a little bit,” Ober said of the illness, which forced him to sharpen his focus. “I feel like you take the pressure off yourself to play, just because you know you don’t feel great out there and you don’t think too much. You try to make pitches and that’s it.”
Left-hander Caleb Thielbar earned the final out for his first save of the season and second of his career.
Patrick Sandoval (1-4) gave up four runs (three earned) in 5 2/3 innings for the Angels, who lost for the seventh time in their last eight games. Nolan Shanwell drove in a pair of runs for the Angels and Zach Neto had an RBI.
The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Santana’s home run to center field, his second. Buxton made it 2-0 with an RBI single in the third.
With Ober in control, the Twins added a third run in the fifth inning on Jeffers’ single and made it 4-0 in the sixth when Santana drove in his second run of the game with a single.
The Angels finally got their first hit when Luis Rengifo hit a foul ball into shallow center field, just out of shortstop Castro’s reach. After a double by Neto that put two runners on board, Shanwell ended the shutout bid with his RBI grounder to shortstop.
“Despite all of that, we were still in position to win this game,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “We just have to start our offense earlier. This is the second game in a row we’ve gone into the sixth without a hit. But from the sixth to the ninth we struggled.”
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was impressed with how Ober not only turned things around after a rough first-game hit, but continued to play at a high level, even with an illness.
“When a person is sick, you don’t know if they’re going to be fine, they’re going to wind up, or something in between.” You just don’t know,” Baldelli said. “We kept an eye on him but he was direct. He was catching the ball, throwing strikes, and his cutter was working pretty well. It looked great. He didn’t look sick, that’s for sure. He threw as well as you can throw.
Shanwell added an RBI single in the eighth inning before Castro came back for the Twins with an RBI double in the ninth. Neto drove in a run for the Angels in the ninth inning.
“We just couldn’t find a way to get on base,” Washington said. “We finally won with Rengifo’s goal and then things started to go in our favour. But we have to start our attack earlier.”
Former Twins infielder Miguel Sano started at third base for the Angels and went 0 for 2 with two strikeouts. Before going unsigned and sitting out last season, Sano was in Minnesota for eight seasons and hit 162 home runs.
Anthony Rendon will be out for a significant amount of time
Third baseman Anthony Rendon said he has a high-grade partial tear of his left hamstring, the update coming five days after he was placed on the disabled list with a “strain.” It’s expected to be a long rebuild for Rendon, who has yet to play more than 58 games in any of his previous four seasons with the club, though one of those was the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.. … Right-hander Chase Silseth (elbow) took part in a light throwing session.
Next up
Twins RHP Chris Paddack (1-1, 5.57 ERA) returns to the mound after a 10-hit performance against the White Sox on Monday, his most since June 2021. Angels RHP Jose Soriano (0-3, 3.43 ERA) will make his fourth career start after not giving up an earned run over six innings Sunday against the Reds.
