ANAHEIM -- Prior to Sunday’s 8-0 win in the series finale against the Angels at Angel Stadium, manager Derek Shelton identified two objectives for Dean Kremer in order to finish an uneven 2026 campaign on a high note.
“Continue to go out and use his split effectively. I think we’ve seen it really good, we’ve seen it inconsistent,” Shelton said. “Throw strikes and attack. He has the ability to attack guys, and I think that’s the one thing that hopefully he builds on in these last two starts.”
Kremer accomplished both those goals as he led the Twins to a commanding shutout victory to split the series and hand the Halos a loss in their final home game of 2026.
The 30-year-old right-hander held the Angels to one hit over six sharp innings, striking out eight -- two on the splitter -- while walking three and hitting one batter. He generated 16 whiffs and threw 13 of his 19 splitters for strikes. He attacked the Halos’ lineup from the opening frame, throwing 17 first-pitch strikes out of 22 batters faced (77.3%) -- including to his first eight -- for his second-highest clip this season.
“Nostradamus type, right there,” Shelton said with a laugh after the win. “We know that what makes him effective is attacking the zone. I thought Victor [Caratini] did a really good job keeping him in the zone. And then the split was good, he did a good job executing. I thought his cutter was good. And he did a good job using that to both sides of the plate.”
It was Kremer’s fourth straight start with a first-strike rate of 65% or higher. The MLB average among starters this season was 61.7% entering Sunday.
“It’s one of my goals, of just being ahead and putting pressure on hitters,” Kremer said.
It’s been an up-and-down year for Kremer, who began the season in Triple-A after an unexpected demotion by the Orioles during Spring Training. Then shortly after Baltimore recalled him in mid-April, Kremer hit the injured list with a right quad strain that sidelined him for more than two months.
A month after that, the Twins acquired Kremer from the Orioles ahead of the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline. He’s now posted a 3.80 ERA across his first nine starts with Minnesota, and a 1.62 over his last three, lowering his season ERA from 6.50 to 4.97 since the trade. With six games remaining on the schedule, he could be in line for one more start during the final homestand against Texas.
“Just being able to move [the fastball] up and down when we want, I think makes it a lot more difficult for hitters,” Kremer said of his heater, which accounted for five of his punchouts and half of his whiffs. “If you’re always at the top or always at the bottom, you kind of become one-dimensional. So being able to do both, I think, definitely helps.”
Of course, it also helps when your offense puts up eight runs on 13 hits. Brooks Lee, Josh Bell and Alan Roden collected three hits each, with Roden’s three-run homer in the seventh putting the game away.
With the club in the midst of a stretch of 13 games in as many days -- and coming off an 11-inning affair Saturday -- Kremer’s outing also provided a lift to a very thin Twins bullpen. Starter Bailey Ober, who had been scheduled to start Monday’s series opener in San Francisco, took over in the seventh and earned a three-inning save. It was his first career save -- and his first pro relief outing since rookie ball in 2019. He struck out three and allowed one single.
“I don’t think we could have scripted it any better, in terms of Dean giving us six, and then Bailey coming in and finishing and getting his first career save,” Shelton said. “Overall, you really appreciate, with our culture, the mindset of the team and the selflessness, and I give Bailey a ton of credit.”
Shelton said he and his pitching group had discussed the possibility with Ober ahead of time. With six starters and an overworked relief corps, Ober’s bulk outing today helped position the Twins’ pitching staff for its final two series.
“First career save, which is awesome,” Kremer said. “Not everybody gets to do that. But that’s the definition of a good teammate, being able to pick up guys even though it’s not his normal role. Just a team guy.”