Twins fall to Royals 6-1 as Kansas City gives Bailey Ober trouble again

Bailey Ober, by all measures, has been a solid major league starting pitcher throughout his four-year career. Except when he’s facing the Kansas City Royals.

Ober, in a 6-1 loss, surrendered nine hits and six runs over five innings Wednesday at Target Field, the most damage he’s allowed in a start since he faced the Royals in his season debut. Ober owns a 7.71 ERA in nine career starts against his division rival.

It’s a confounding kryptonite. Ober had good command, inducing several swings and misses with his fastball and cutter. He threw a first-pitch strike to 18 of his 24 batters. He didn’t walk anyone. It was still one of his worst starts of the year.

Ober was doomed during a four-run third inning. Bobby Witt Jr. poked an opposite-field RBI single through the right side of the infield, and Salvador Perez followed with an RBI double off the left field wall when he connected with a cutter on the outside corner. Perez has reached base at least once in 43 of his last 45 games.

After a running catch from Carlos Correa in left field, Nelson Velázquez crushed a full-count cutter past the center-field fence for a two-run, two-out homer.

In the fifth inning, Perez hammered a fastball for a solo homer to center, a no-doubter that Perez appreciated for a moment in the batter’s box. Two batters later, Velázquez hit another fastball into the left field seats for the third multi-homer game of his career.

Ober, who allowed nine hits and eight runs in 1⅓ innings in Kansas City on March 31, has yielded a 19.90 ERA in his two starts against Kansas City this year and a 3.02 ERA against every other team. Six of the 10 homers he’s allowed are from Royals batters.

After Ober exited, Twins relievers Steven Okert, Diego Castillo and Cole Sands combined to pitch four scoreless innings with one hit and one walk.

BOXSCORE: Kansas City 6, Twins 1

The Twins had a 1-0 lead in the second inning against Royals righthander Seth Lugo, who owns the lowest ERA (1.72) in the majors among starting pitchers, with contributions from the bottom three hitters in their lineup. Willi Castro lined a double down the right-field line, Carlos Santana blooped a single to center and Jose Miranda hit a sacrifice fly to the left field warning track.

Lugo, who allowed six hits and three walks in six innings, staved off potential rallies with key strikeouts. After a pair of two-out singles in the first inning, Lugo struck out Ryan Jeffers in an eight-pitch at-bat. Lugo stranded two more runners by striking out Miranda in the fourth inning.

With two runners on base and one out in the fifth inning, Lugo struck out Max Kepler on a called third strike on the 12th pitch of their at-bat. Lugo, who throws eight different pitches and used each of them in that at-bat, pumped his fist when his 93-mph sinker froze Kepler.

The Twins had only one inning when they didn’t have a batter reach base, but they went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. After the first two batters reached base in the bottom of the ninth inning, Correa lined out to third base before Royals reliever Carlos Hernández retired Byron Buxton and Max Kepler with a strikeout and a flyout.