Jeffers, Buxton power Twins to win after Ober's solid start

Bailey Ober continued his resurgence as the Twins stanched the bleeding of a recent slump with a 7-1 win against the Blue Jays at Target Field on Thursday night in Minneapolis. It was Minnesota’s third win in 14 games.

Ober baffled the Blue Jays with a variety of offspeed offerings, throwing fewer than 30 percent fastballs on the night. And it worked, as he held the visitors to a run on four hits over six-plus innings, striking out two and walking two. The only blemish against him came on Daulton Varsho’s solo homer.

The veteran right-hander averaged 88 mph on his four-seam fastball, but it didn’t matter much, since he only threw 21 of them. He located his changeup, sweeper, slider and curveball en route to his third consecutive quality start.

A year removed from the worst season of his career, Ober’s ERA dropped to 3.55 with the performance. He’s gone at least six innings in four consecutive starts and held opponents to three runs or fewer in all but one of his starts.

And that performance was more than enough, as a pair of veteran teammates supported him with homers. Ryan Jeffers and Byron Buxton both went deep to stay hot.

Jeffers had the biggest hit of the game, blasting a two-run shot off Kevin Gausman in the bottom of the fourth, half an inning after Varsho had put Toronto ahead 1-0. Buxton followed with a solo jack in the sixth. It was his third homer in four games and fifth in nine games as he comes on strong following a slow start to the season.

The eighth was a tough inning for Kazuma Okamoto and the Blue Jays' infield, as two errors and a mile-high popup that fell in helped Minnesota add three more runs on the board. A Josh Bell double brought in two runs before Toronto's second error of the inning secured the Twins' victory.