Joe Ryan’s Season-Ending Struggles Continue as Twins Fall to Guardians
Coming off a Grade 2 shoulder strain that knocked him out for most of the last two months of 2024, Joe Ryan has returned to pitch a career-high 166 innings. His 1.04 WHIP is the second-best of his career, and if he pitches in the season-ending series in Philadelphia next weekend, he’ll set a career high with 30 starts.
However, after dropping a third straight decision on Saturday, the Twins’ right-hander lamented how he has so far finished his season. Ryan allowed four solo home runs in five innings of a 6-0 loss to the Cleveland Guardians at Target Field, expressing his disappointment with his recent performance.
“I wish I could have been a little bit smoother the last couple — and just thrown a couple more innings, too,” Ryan said. “My role is to take some innings off the bullpen there, and I don’t feel like I’ve done a really good job of that lately.” Jose Ramirez, Bo Naylor, and George Valera — his first in the majors — all homered off Ryan to give the Guardians a 3-0 lead after two innings, and Daniel Schneeman added a fourth in a two-run fifth inning.
Guardians’ Winning Streak Continues
In a makeup of a May 20 rainout — and the first of two Saturday at Target Field — Naylor added a solo home run off Thomas Hatch in the eighth inning, a long drive over the scoreboard in right-center, as the Guardians won their ninth straight game and 14th of 15 since Sept. 5 to pull within 1½ games of first-place Detroit in the American League Central.
Ryan (13-9) allowed six hits, walked two, and struck out five. Cleveland starter Slade Cecconi (7-6) pitched seven innings and allowed only three Twins batters to reach base, including Austin Martin, whose first-inning line drive into center extended his hitting streak to eight games.
Left-hander Kolby Allard finished the game for Cleveland with a pair of scoreless innings as the Twins lost for the eighth time in 10 games. Ryan surrendered only one hit that stayed in the park, a one-out double by Brayan Rocchio, who advanced to third on a single by Steven Kwan, then scored on a throwing error by catcher Jhonny Pereda when Kwan stole second.
Ryan’s Recent Struggles
Ryan, 29, said in retrospect, he regrets starting a Sept. 6 game at Kansas City while struggling with an illness. He lasted two innings in an 11-2 loss, allowing five earned runs on four hits and four walks. “Probably not a good call, just with where I was dehydration-wise and stuff,” he said Saturday.
Since that loss in Kansas City, Ryan has gone seven days between starts but fell to 0-2 with a 9.00 earned-run average in September. “But lessons learned,” he said. “Obviously, we were out of (contention), and I’ve just got to make notes for years going forward and see what I can do a little differently to be a little more consistent.”
Ramirez’s two-out homer in the first inning was his 30th of the season. With 40 stolen bases so far this season, he became the third Cleveland player with three 30-30 seasons. Martin also has a career-best 16-game on-base streak. He was hitting .301 after the first game of Saturday’s double-header.
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