TORONTO >> Was it his best start ever?

Rocco Baldelli thinks it might have been for Bailey Ober. The 6-foot-9 right-hander isn’t so sure — he recalls another outing a couple years ago in which he also struck out 10 batters and pitched into the eighth inning.

The Blue Jays? Well, they probably think so.

Ober threw 6 1/3 innings on Sunday, allowing just one hit in the Twins’ 5-1 win over Toronto. He walked none. Just one of the 20 batters he faced — Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who singled in the fourth inning — reached base in a nearly unhittable outing for Ober.

After the Blue Jays made Ober work in the first inning — he threw 20 pitches and each at-bat lasted at least six pitches — he said he shifted his mindset.

“It was just, ‘Get ahead early.’ I feel like once I was able to do that, I was able to get in a groove and kind of be in control of the game,” Ober said. “Just execute some pitches early and put guys away late.”

Ober got nine swing-and-misses on his four-seam fastball in the start, using that pitch to pick up most of his early strikeouts.

“Today, I felt like they weren’t as on time as other teams have been this season. So, I was able to lean on that a little bit more, really just kind of execute that at the top of the zone late in counts where maybe they were sitting offspeed,” he said.

His outing ended after a 10-pitch at-bat from Daulton Varsho, one which Ober finished with a strikeout, the perfect way for him to punctuate one of his most dominant starts.

It was the first time he eclipsed the 100-pitch mark this season and the second time he had pitched into the seventh inning.

“He was just fantastic,” Baldelli said. “I told him, ‘I think that’s absolutely one of your best outings that I’ve ever seen,’ and he’s had a ton of great outings.”

Buxton progressing

Byron Buxton did not make the trip to Canada with his teammates — but the Twins did receive some good news from back home about the center fielder.

“He’s doing good,” Baldelli said. “He’s running, so it’s good news. He’s feeling better.”

Buxton is on the injured list with right knee inflammation — it’s the same knee that he’s twice had surgically repaired — and has been since May 3. At the time, the Twins were hoping Buxton’s stay on the injured list would be close to the 10-day minimum.

Briefly

The Twins will have Monday off before taking on the New York Yankees this week at Target Field. Chris Paddack, Pablo López and Joe Ryan are scheduled to make starts in that series. … Edouard Julien put on a show in his home country, collecting two hits in both Saturday and Sunday’s games. Julien, who hails from Quebec, grew up rooting for the Blue Jays.

Team Minnesota believes it’s time to make someone else uncomfortable in the Professional Women’s Hockey League playoffs.

Enough of Toronto goaltender Kristen Campbell getting a clean look at Minnesota’s best scoring chances. Enough of Toronto’s penalty-killers feeling confident enough to get their own quality scoring chances while short-handed. Enough of being the visiting team playing in front of a large, raucous crowd.

Enough of the losing.

Down 2-0 in the best-of-five series, Minnesota needs a win tonight at Xcel Energy Center to keep its season alive. Playing at home should provide a needed spark after the two losses in Toronto.

“In Toronto, you couldn’t hear anything,” Minnesota center Taylor Heise said. “You couldn’t hear your neighbor, you couldn’t hear anything on the bench. That’s exactly what we want to hear in (our) building.”

Minnesota has yet to score a goal in the postseason, losing 4-0 in Game 1 and 2-0 in a Game 2 that was scoreless until the closing minutes.

Minnesota was much more competitive in Game 2 but will have to raise its game another level to stave off elimination.

“The first game, we were a little off,” Minnesota coach Ken Klee said. “We didn’t play our smartest game, and they made us pay for it. The second game, we played our style of hockey. We weren’t giving them free looks.

“They scored four rush goals, which we haven’t done that all year, where we were on the wrong side of pucks. The second game was right there for us — we just have to grab it. We had power-play chances, we had shots, we got good looks. We’ve got to keep fighting the fight.”

Klee said he didn’t feel his team sacrificed any offense in Game 2 in order to contain Toronto.

“We had more offense,” he said. “You play hockey the right way, you get offense. People think you need to cheat to get offense. It doesn’t work that way at high-level hockey. You play the right way, you’ll force them into turnovers, where you get your breaks.”

Klee said prior to the start of the series that Minnesota’s key forwards, including Heise, Grace Zumwinkle and Kendall Coyne Schofield would have to produce for Minnesota to win the series.

The time is now for it to happen, and for Zumwinkle, it starts with making things more difficult for Campbell.

“We need to get to the dirty areas,” she said. “We’ve let her see a lot of shots and let her off easy at some points.”

Heise said Minnesota also needs to do a better job of maintaining control of the puck in the offensive zone and not turning it over by simply cycling things down into the corner.

“We’re better than that,” Heise said. “They haven’t given us a ton of time, but we’ve done a lot of work in practice getting shots through to the net, getting shots through from our defense, getting tips on net.”

Klee mixed up his lines for Game 2, including pairing Zumwinkle with Heise in hopes of giving the offense a spark. Both players know they need to raise their games.

“It’s easier said than done,” Zumwinkle said. “You start putting pressure on yourself, but it’s hockey at the end of the day. You can’t overthink it. Just continue to do the things that have
made us successful this year.”

Offered Heise: “You’re not always going to have your best days, and for me personally, last game I wasn’t really happy with it. So coming out and doing what I can to help the team succeed — I think if everyone in our locker room will do that, it will come out in a positive way.”

Minnesota also needs to find a quick fix to a lackluster power play that has plagued the team all season. Minnesota is 0 for 5 on the power play in the series after having one of the worst power plays in the league during the regular season.

“We’ve moved people around, right side, left side, we’re attacking the goal line,” Klee said. “We had some good goal-line shots, some good point shots. Now it’s just finishing.”

Klee also gave credit to Toronto’s penalty-killing units.

“They’re No. 1 in the league for a reason,” he said. “They really press hard, so if we start putting pucks on the wall, or rimming, they’re going to attack. We need to make two or three tape-to-tape passes and then look to attack.”

Zumwinkle said playing on the power play calls for a particular mindset.

“Yes, you have to execute,” she said, “but you have to have the mindset that I’m going to go and score.”

Succeeding in that area on Monday night, especially early, would give a Minnesota fan base eager for something to cheer about a reason to explode.

TORONTO >> When the Twins first started to turn their season around last month, much of their success was a product of their offense finally starting to break out.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘What happens when the starting pitchers start picking up their end?’” starter Bailey Ober said.

The Twins are seeing it now.

Ober was near his best on Sunday, helping guide the Twins to a 5-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the series finale at the Rogers Centre.

“I felt good,” he said simply, a statement that downplays how brilliant he actually was on Sunday.

Ober faced 20 hitters on Sunday. He retired 19 of them. A two-out, Vladimir Guerrero single in the fourth inning was the only blemish on his line.

He finished his start by striking out his 10th batter of the day, Daulton Varsho, who battled him for 10 pitches before Ober emerged from the fight victorious. Varsho marked the first out of the seventh inning, at which point Ober was lifted after throwing 104 pitches.

By that point, first baseman Carlos Santana had already busted open what had been a pitcher’s duel between Ober and Blue Jays (18-22) starter Alek Manoah by hitting a three-run home run, his third homer in as many days.

“Carlos has been excellent,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s been a a big part of our offense really coming alive.”

That home run was the only crack Manoah showed in his seven-inning start, one in which he was mowing Twins’ (24-16) hitters down. In one inning, he did retired the side in just six pitches. In another, just four pitches.

But after Max Kepler reached base in the seventh on an error and Manoah allowed just his third hit of the day, a Willi Castro single, the Twins took advantage.

Santana’s home run marked the second time this season that he’s hit home runs in three consecutive games.

“That’s why I go to the cage every day and work hard,” the veteran said. “Practice when you’re behind in the count, so when he throws a changeup, I’m ready.”

He sure was.

Santana gave the Twins a three-run lead at the time and made a winner out of Ober, who made way for Cole Sands in the seventh.

When Sands ran into some trouble, left-hander Kody Funderburk came in and helped bail Sands out of the jam, entering with the bases loaded and just one out, and allowing just a sacrifice fly to minimize the damage.

The Twins tacked on a pair runs in the eighth, using a Kepler double to do so. That hit extended his hitting streak to 14 games, a career high.

It also helped provide the Twins some insurance on their way to a series victory, one in which they won their 17th game out of their past 20.

“That’s pretty cool to hear, especially the way we started out,” Ober said. “I think everyone’s just taking just taking it day by day and excited to show up and go out there and play. I think the belief right now, and when we’re playing, it is that we’re in it every single inning. … Guys are really starting to believe in each other and the whole team in general that we can show up and win every day.”