Twins drop sixth straight in rain-shortened game to Reds, fall below .500

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jun 19, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CINCINNATI - As soon as rain started falling in the sixth inning Wednesday, crew chief umpire David Rackley signaled for the Great American Ball Park grounds crew to pull the tarp over the infield, and Bailey Ober held up his arms.

Ober, who hadn’t pitched well all month, finally settled into a groove. It was just too late to help the Twins in a 4-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds in a rain-shortened six innings, extending their season-long losing streak to six games.

The Twins, who own a 36-37 record, dropped under .500 for the first time since they were 19-20 on May 9.

After Ober gave up runs in each of his first three innings, he retired eight of his last nine batters before Mother Nature halted him.

The rain intensified quickly — a severe storm delayed the start of the game for two hours, seven minutes— and Ober slowly trotted off the mound. It was likely Ober’s last inning anyway, after throwing 88 pitches, but it was an abrupt ending for a guy searching for anything positive. He allowed nine hits and four runs in 5 ⅔ innings with five strikeouts and zero walks.

Ober, granted a one-run lead before he took the mound, hasn’t shown much consistency since fellow starters Pablo López and Zebby Matthews landed on the injured list. In the first inning, Ober surrendered a two-run, two-out homer to Spencer Steer on a 92-mph fastball.

He’s yielded seven homers in three starts this month.

Ober threw a first-pitch strike to four of his first nine batters, and it cost him against the bottom of the Reds lineup. He gave up three hits in the second inning, including an RBI opposite-field single to Matt McLain on a ground ball that shot past first baseman Ty France.

Steer pulled a one-out double down the left-field line in the second inning and Will Benson followed two pitches later with an RBI single to right field on a down-the-middle fastball.

In Ober’s three starts this month, he’s allowed 20 hits and 16 runs over 17 ⅓ innings (8.31 ERA). This month has been a test of the Twins’ pitching depth, a bad time for Ober to have one of his worst stretches in years.

The Twins’ offense has scored more than three runs only once in its past six games. Facing Reds lefty Nick Lodolo, they totaled three hits, two walks and one hit batsman across six innings.

Byron Buxton homered on the first pitch following the 127-minute rain delay — the game started under some light rain — bashing a 93-mph fastball over the left-field fence. It was the second time Buxton homered on the game’s first pitch this season and his 11th career leadoff home run.

Buxton has homered in back-to-back games and three times in his last six games.

The Twins left two runners on base in the first inning, following a walk and a hit batter, when Lodolo struck out Harrison Bader. They didn’t have another runner reach second base until Willi Castro and Brooks Lee singled in the fourth inning, Lee extending his hitting streak to 17 games.

Castro scored on a groundout, but Lodolo retired his final eight batters.