The five-game losing streak is history after the Twins got exactly what the doctor ordered — a quality start from Joe Ryan, the team’s clear No. 1, who helped the Twins earn a 2-0 win over the M’s on Wednesday.
Ryan scattered three hits across six innings with no walks and eight strikeouts on 93 pitches. He improves to 8-3 on the season with a 2.86 ERA.
“Vazky (catcher Christian Vázquez) did a great job calling the game,” Ryan told MLB.com, “and we had a couple areas where like, ‘All right, let’s try this, let’s try that.’ It was just fun, and one thing to talk about is just the art of pitching a little bit more and using that. I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
The Twins scored only two runs on a solo shot and an RBI single, but Ryan’s effort, plus the bullpen, kept the M’s in check.
After Ryan stepped aside, the artist formerly known as Louie Varland worked a scoreless seventh inning on 17 pitches, Griffin Jax topped that with a nine-pitch eighth and then closer Jhoan Duran, who was tagged with the loss in Tuesday’s one-run defeat, redeemed himself with a nine pitch ninth to earn his 11th save. He has an ERA of 1.73.
The Twins will try to earn a split of the four-game series on Thursday. Simeon Woods Richardson gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 38-42.
–Wednesday’s game was played in two hours, 14 minutes. Good pitching will do that.
–I think slugger Matt Wallner may need a tune up at Triple-A St. Paul because he is really struggling at the plate. Over the last 15 games, Wallner is hitting .132., according to MLB.com stats.
–Kody Clemens committed an error, which had me grumbling at the TV, and then he hit a solo dinger, his ninth of the season. So there’s that, I guess.
–Attendance for Wednesday’s game was 15,850. The Twins are still struggling in that department, ranking 12th out of 15 American League teams in attendance, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
–Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has reportedly received a contract extension from the Twins. Not sure what to say, other than, has he earned it?