Second bullpen blowup in three days sends Twins to loss in San Diego
SAN DIEGO — Jurickson Profar flailed at Bailey Ober’s changeup low in the zone, dropping down to one knee as he swung through it.
That at-bat ended the sixth inning and concluded Ober’s reign of dominance over the San Diego Padres. The next time the left fielder came to the plate, he rocked a three-run home run to left field in the eighth inning, helping lift the Padres to a 7-5 win over the Twins.
In between those two Profar at-bats, the Padres rallied to tie the game with Manny Machado, responding to chants of his name from the crowd, finally solving Ober in the seventh inning.
His two-run home run was just the Padres’ fourth hit all night. It tied the game and ended Ober’s night.
The Twins answered back quickly, though, putting the first three batters of the eighth inning on base. Twins catcher Christian Vázquez, fresh off the bench, came through with a pinch hit single, bringing home a pair of runs to give the Twins the lead back ever so briefly and provide some new life.
But Steven Okert couldn’t hold that advantage, causing the Twins’ second bullpen blowup in their past three games.
The lefty was summoned to face a run of left-handed batters, but instead he first faced pinch hitter Donovan Solano, who singled to center to begin the bottom of the eighth inning. Luis Arraez, a lefty, singled, as well, before Profar, a switch hitter batting right-handed, smacked his 20th home run of the season to give San Diego the lead back.
The Padres would tack on one more run later in the inning, with all the late offense overshadowing what had been another stellar effort from Ober.
The Padres’ offense had just two hits off Ober through his first six innings in another dominant effort. Both those hits came in the second inning, producing the first run of the game.
The Twins had played with a lead for much of the night after catcher Ryan Jeffers hit his team-leading 20th home run in the fourth inning, a two-run blast. The Twins had added another run in the fifth inning when Max Kepler came around to score on a Royce Lewis sacrifice fly, padding the lead the Twins held until Machado’s big blast.