Marlins put faltering Twins in even greater trouble with 4-1 win in wildcard race

The struggling Minnesota Twins took another step back in the American League wild-card race when Jonah Bride hit a home run off Bailey Ober to lead off a four-run second inning for the 99-loss Miami Marlins in a 4-1 victory on Tuesday night.

Bride had three hits, while Nick Fortes and Xavier Edwards each had two, helping to spark a decisive second-inning comeback against Ober (12-8), who failed to complete six innings for only the second time in his last 17 starts.

The Twins (81-76), who have lost 23 of their last 34 games and 14 of 20, fell to within two games of Detroit and Kansas City for the playoffs. The Tigers and Royals occupy the last two of the three wild-card spots, tied at 83-74. The Twins have the tiebreakers after winning the season series against both, but there are only five games left to play.

The upstart Tigers had already won a game – their 28th in their last 39 games – before the Twins even began batting practice, as their game against Tampa Bay was moved up to avoid rain.

The Twins, the defending AL Central champions, were just two games behind league-leading Cleveland and tied for second with Kansas City through Aug. 24 despite several bullpen collapses the previous week. But as they stumbled into the final month of the season, their offense — which had been one of the most productive in baseball all summer — unfortunately collapsed.

After dragging themselves home from a 2-5 road trip, the Twins arrived at Target Field for their final home game with two potential catalysts. The opposing Marlins have the second-worst record in the major leagues, second only to the historically unsuccessful Chicago White Sox. And then there's the commanding and calming presence of Ober, the 6-foot-1 right-hander who has had a stellar season and is conveniently scheduled to pitch again in Sunday's finale.

None of these approaches worked.

Bride hit a full-count fastball that was a 104.3-mph rocket that reached the second deck behind left field and put the Marlins, who had lost 10 of their last 13 games before this series, on the scoreboard. With two outs, Ober scored on Derek Hill with a pitch and allowed an RBI single by Fortes two batters later.

Then Edwards hit a two-run double to left field for a four-run lead that could have been twice as much given the style the Twins were playing. They went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base.

Royce Lewis had an RBI single in the third inning against Marlins starter Ryan Weathers (4-6), but the left-hander finished five innings for his first win since May 26. He spent 2½ months on the injured list.

Ober threw to a batter in the sixth inning. He is 0-3 with five no-decisions in his last eight starts.

Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers threw out two runners trying to steal second base, including Edwards in the fourth. He has 30 stolen bases in 65 games and has been caught only four times.

Twins right fielder Max Kepler is not expected to return this week after missing the last 20 games with an injury that was initially diagnosed as patellar tendonitis in his left knee and has since been diagnosed with a hip problem that could require offseason surgery.

If Minnesota makes the playoffs, there's a chance he could be reinstated to the active roster in October, but with his contract expiring this fall, he's likely played his last game with an organization that signed him as a 16-year-old from Germany in 2009. Kepler's best season came in 2019, when he hit 36 ​​home runs with 90 RBIs and an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .855.

“I don’t think I could have done much more as a kid from Berlin,” he said.

RHP Edward Cabrera (4-8, 5.12 ERA) will pitch for the Marlins in the middle game of the series on Wednesday night. RHP Simeon Woods Richardson (5-5, 4.00 ERA) will start for the Twins.