ANAHEIM -- If momentum in baseball is only as good as that day’s starting pitcher, the Twins, fresh off a four-game sweep of the White Sox, were in a good spot Friday with Bailey Ober set to go.

Minnesota’s most consistent starter showed that not even a stomach bug could keep him from delivering.

Minnesota’s most consistent starter, Ober helped make it a five-game winning streak for his team, flirting with a no-hitter en route to a two-run, 7 1/3-inning effort to top the Angels, 5-3, at Angel Stadium. It tied his outing against the White Sox on Sept. 27, 2022, for the longest start of his career, while his eight strikeouts were a season high.

“We kept a close eye on him,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “But man, he was direct and just grabbing the ball and throwing strikes, and he had the cutter working today pretty good. He looked great. He didn’t look sick, that’s for sure.”

The right-hander certainly didn't show any signs of not being at full strength early on, retiring the first nine batters he faced on just 29 pitches. He issued a pair of walks to open the fourth but was able to keep the Angels off the board, and a clean eight-pitch fifth made it the deepest Ober had ever taken a no-hit bid. His previous longest was 4 1/3 innings, which he did just one start ago, on Saturday against the Tigers.

It was the bottom of the Angels’ order that finally got to Ober in the sixth. Luis Rengifo led off with a bloop single to center, then Zach Neto hit a hard double to the foot of the wall in right-center to put runners on second and third with none out. Ober picked up a big strikeout of Mike Trout and managed to limit the damage to one run on an RBI groundout.

Ober said a lengthy top of the sixth, in which the Twins had two hits and the Angels had two mound visits and a pitching change, didn’t contribute to him losing the bid.

“I felt like I got a little bit more adrenaline after that inning, because I had to really make some good pitches to get out of it,” said Ober. “So I felt great going out to the seven, had a good seventh inning, and was ready to go back out for the eighth still feeling good.”

Pitching into the seventh for the first time this season, Ober worked a perfect frame on nine pitches, then stayed in to start the eighth for the second time in his career. He retired Rengifo but allowed another double to Neto and was lifted with the top of the order coming back up. Neto scored on a Nolan Schanuel base hit off of Matt Bowman, a run that was charged to Ober.

Still, it was a third straight quality start for Ober, who has a 1.48 ERA in four games following his difficult Opening Day appearance.

“He’s as consistent of a starting pitcher as I’ve ever seen,” said Baldelli. “... One thing Bailey does is he gives you a good start virtually every time he goes out there in one form or another. Since that first outing of the year, he’s been not just good, he’s been great.”

One encouraging development was the Angels’ lack of success against Ober’s four-seamer. Through his first four starts, batters had gone 12-for-29 (.414) when putting the fastball in play. They were 0-for-2 on Friday. But it was Ober’s changeup that really stood out, with 10 of his 12 whiffs coming on the pitch, as well as six of his strikeouts.

“We kind of harped going into this season: if I can get the [changeup] over the plate and down, it's gonna have good results, and I was able to do that today,” said Ober.

Due to recent bullpen usage, the Twins didn’t have some of their top relief arms available, making the length Ober was able to provide all the more important. Sure enough, the Angels threatened late, mounting a ninth-inning comeback attempt against Bowman and Caleb Thielbar. But Thielbar was able to retire the potential winning run in Trout to lock in another Twins victory.

“[Everyone’s] really locked in right now and having just a little bit better vibes and just having fun,” said Ober. “That's the biggest thing, just having fun out there on the field. We're playing a game, and [everyone] right now is playing good, and hopefully, we can continue that.”