Two of baseball’s best offensive teams went head to head Monday in an interleague game between the Twins and Philadelphia Phillies. The big difference? The Twins were missing three of their best sluggers.

But with Bailey Ober dealing, the Twins had enough to beat the best team in baseball 7-2 in front of 29,904 at Target Field.

Ober recovered from Bryce Harper’s two-run home run in the first inning, retiring 14 of 14 batters at one point, and the Twins manufactured runs with a series of clutch hits to win for the first time since returning from the All-Star break on Saturday.

Manuel Margot and Willi Castro each drove in a pair of runs for the Twins, who rapped Philadelphia pitching for 12 hits — eight singles and four doubles. Carlos Santana had two hits and a walk, and Minnesota broke the game open with a three-run burst against reliever Yunior Marte in the eighth.

Minnesota Twins’ Manuel Margot follows through on a two-run single against the Philadelphia Phillies in the fifth inning of a baseball game Monday, July 22, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

With Carlos Correa (foot), Royce Lewis (groin) and Jose Miranda (back) sidelined, the Twins were missing three players whose bats were a big part of the team’s 119 home runs and .253 batting average (both seventh in baseball) and 456 RBIs (eighth) heading into the day.

But what they had was enough to overwhelm a Phillies that came into this three-game series with an MLB-best 63 victories, ranked third in batting average (.258), fourth in RBIs (470) and sixth in home runs (122).

Trea Turner hit a one-out single in the first off Ober before Harper smoked a cutter from Ober over the bleachers in right for a 2-0 lead. In Harper’s first game at Target Field, his first hit left his bat at 113.9 mph, according to MLB’s Statcast, and traveled an estimated 424 feet.

But Ober (9-5) never made another mistake, allowing only three more base-runners on two singles and a walk. The big right-hander was charged with two earned runs on four hits and a walk in seven innings. He struck out four.

Cole Sands pitched the final two innings, securing his third save.

The Twins manufactured three runs off of Philadelphia starter Ranger Suarez (10-5), starting in the third when Diego Castillo drew a one-out walk and scored on Castro’s two-out single to center to cut the lead in half 2-1.

In the fifth, Max Kepler opened with a single to center, then moved to third on a double to right by Castillo. Margot then drove them both in with a single to right to make it 3-2.

The Twins added a run in the seventh when Ryan Jeffers greeted reliever Seranthony Dominguez with a leadoff double off the wall in center field and scored on a two-out double to right by Carlos Santana to make it 4-2.

Sands relieved Ober for the eighth and retired the Phillies in order, and the Twins capitalized off a wild Marte.

Trevor Larnach started the inning with a double off the scoreboard in right-center and pinch-runner Austin Martin quickly came home on a single by Kepler to make it 5-2. Edouard Julien walked, and Ryan Jeffers dumped a one-out single into right to load the bases.

Castro walked to plate a run, and Julien scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-2.

After opening the lead, Twins closer Jhoan Duran sat down after warming up and Sands pitched the ninth. Alec Bohm reached on a two-out error by Castro at short but the right-hander retired J.T. Realmuto on a fly ball to right end the game.