3 Twins that deserve blame after 6-4 loss to Astros in ALDS Game 1

Bailey Ober

For the most part, Bailey Ober pitched mostly fine in Game 1, but his mistakes are absolutely massive. Ober only pitched three innings and faced 14 batters, and were it not for three bad pitches he might have been getting pats on the back rather than blamed for the loss.

Ober's three bad pitches were backbreakers. He gave up a home run to Jose Altuve on the very first pitch of the game and then had two pitches in the third inning combine for two more runs. Alex Bregman was hit with a slider that got too far inside which put him on first for Yordan Alvarez, who tattooed a changeup a few pitches later.

Three pitches, three runs.

Two of those pitches were almost identical and produced the exact same result twice. Ober gave Altuve a fastball high in the zone on the first-pitch home run. Two innings later he served up another pitch high in the zone, this time a changeup to Yordan Alvarez who launched it into the right field seats.

Home plate umpire Brian Knight called the first pitch of the Alvarez at-bat a ball, even though it seemed to be a strike that just snuck into the bottom of the zone. It seems likely that Ober overcorrected on his next pitch to go high, which resulted in the home run.

Ober's margin for error was razor thin, and if you take those three mistakes away his day isn't nearly as bad as it seemed. It's hard not to blame him, though, because the work Minnesota's offense did later in the game is painted in a totally different light -- a winning light -- if the mistakes don't happen.