Twins fall to Tigers as Bailey Ober's month of difficulty continues

Phil Miller, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jun 28, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT — Bailey Ober equaled a record held by a Hall of Famer on Saturday.

If only that accomplishment was as great as it sounds.

Ober, scuffling through perhaps the worst month of his career, surrendered four home runs to the Detroit Tigers’ rugged lineup, more than enough to snap the Twins’ three-game winning streak. The Tigers scored in six of the eight innings they batted, and walked — well, trotted — away with a 10-5 victory at Comerica Park.

In succumbing to all that firepower, Ober tied Bert Blyleven’s Twins record of 14 home runs allowed in a calendar month, a mark that has stood for 39 years and one month. In fact, only one pitcher in MLB history has allowed more: Pedro Ramos of the Washington Senators — yep, the Twins’ original forefathers — with 17 in June 1957.

It’s quite a tumble for the tall right-hander who surrendered only three homers over 30 innings in April, and just two in 29 1/3 innings in May.

But 10 runs allowed isn’t exactly new for the Twins’ pitching staff, which has allowed opponents to reach double-digits seven times this season — all of them in June, a month that mercifully has only one game remaining, albeit against Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal on Sunday night.

Byron Buxton, meanwhile, collected three hits, including his 19th home run of the season, and Carlos Correa cracked a two-run shot, his seventh. Buxton even made a little history of his own by stealing second base in the first inning, his 20th consecutive successful steal. It’s the third time in his career that Buxton has stolen 20 in a row, including a stretch of 31 straight from 2017-19.

The Twins’ eight hits couldn’t match the Tigers’ run-scoring, though. Kerry Carpenter got the Derby started in the third inning with a shot into the right field seats. An inning later, Gleyber Torres bombed one over the center field fence, just out of Harrison Bader’s reach. Riley Green led off the fifth inning with a blast into the seats in right, and Zach McKinstry kept one just inside the right field foul pole in the sixth.

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