MINNEAPOLIS — Twins second baseman Jorge Polanco went 3-for-4, drove in two runs and scored another on his fourth-inning solo home run in a 3-1 victory over the Washington Nationals at Target Field on Sunday.
It all came in his third game back from a 2022 season-ending and 2023 season-starting knee injury. He missed the season's first 19 games before Friday's season debut.
Bailey Ober pitched 5⅔ strong innings to win his first start of the season as the Twins ended a three-game losing streak and avoided getting swept in a three-game weekend series with the last-place Nationals.
It also was Rocco Baldelli's 300th victory as Twins manager.
Tom Kelly won 1,140 games, Ron Gardenhire 1,068, Sam Mele 522, Gene Mauch 378 and Paul Molitor 205. Just behind Baldelli on the list is Frank Quilici at 280 and Billy Gardner at 268.
Baldelli won his first game March 28, 2019 at Cleveland, his 100th on Sept. 27 that same season and his 200th on Sept. 11, 2021, vs. Kansas City.
Polanco singled in the second and fifth innings, homered in that fourth inning and struck out to end his team's seventh inning with two men on. His home run off lefthander Patrick Corbin hit high off the left-field foul pole and into a party deck, tying the score after the Nationals scored a first-inning run off Ober.
Michael A. Taylor followed with a solo shot himself just three batters later for a 2-1 lead.
Polanco's fifth-inning single drove in Jose Miranda for the Twins' third run of the afternoon.
Ober was recalled Sunday morning from Clas AAA St. Paul to give the Twins' regular five starters an extra day of rest. They sent Saturday's featured reliever Simeon Woods Richardson back down to make room. It was Ober's first major league appearance this season after he was the last starter left out of the rotation coming out of spring training.
Ober gave up three hits, walked three and struck out four before giving way to Caleb Thielbar.
Before Sunday's game, Baldelli praised Ober's maturity in accepting the assignment to St. Paul.
"Really it was his ability to handle the mental side of the situation and knowing that there were more starters than spots on the opening day roster," Baldelli said. "The ability to still go out there and do all the things he did, still prepare the way he did and pitch the way he did says a lot about his ability to handle things.
"Now he's ready to go."
Ober, 27, has made four starts in St. Paul, going 2-1 with a 2.55 ERA, 22 strikeouts, 6 walks and a .197 (13-for-66) opponent batting average. He pitched 11 consecutive scoreless innings in his last two starts and was named Sunday morning the Twins' minor-league Pitcher of the Week.
He also made four starts in spring training and had a 2.70 ERA in 10 innings pitched without a decision.
