Joe Ryan is doing everything in his power to keep his team in the playoff hunt.
Coming off his much deserved (and overdue) All-Star nod, Joe Ryan turned in his best performance of the season in a tough ballpark to keep the Twins within striking distance of the playoffs.
Ryan was spectacular all afternoon, slicing and dicing the Rockies’ lineup for seven innings while striking out 11 Colorado batters. The only run allowed came on a Mickey Moniak solo shot and they were never able to get more than a single baserunner in an inning. Just marvelous stuff from a pitcher rapidly ascending the league’s hierarchy.
Offensively, Kody Clemens got the scoring started for the Twins once again with an RBI triple in the third, giving the Twins’ utility man triples in back-to-back games. They would add two more in the inning thanks to a Matt Wallner frozen rope homer, which will hopefully get him moving in the right direction for a lineup lacking some thump.
Perhaps even more importantly, Royce Lewis also had his best game of the season. Lewis led off the fourth with one of the longest hit balls for the Twins this season, a 451-foot bomb to left center with a little extra carry thanks to the Denver of it all. It was Royce’s first homer in over a month and just his third of the season. He wasn’t done yet, adding his second home run on the first pitch he saw in the eighth inning. There’s simply nothing that the Twins could do at the trade deadline that would be more important than Wallner and Lewis starting to hit like themselves again.
STUDS
- Joe Ryan: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 11 K, 0 BB
- Royce Lewis: 2-4, 2 HR
- Matt Wallner, Harrison Bader: Solo HR each
- I saw what Christian Vazquez did. I will not acknowledge it. Get your OPS over .600 and then I’ll say nice things about you.
DUDS
- NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!!
The Twins handled this one like they should have handled the first two games of this series, but if that’s not the story of this season then I don’t know what is. Now they’ll head to Los Angeles where David Festa, Simeon Woods Richardson, and Chris Paddack are lined up to be thrown to the wolves. The Dodgers have struggled as late, going just 2-10 over their last 12 games, but momentum isn’t real and if it was the Twins couldn’t use it to their advantage anyway.
We’re officially 10 days out from the trade deadline and rumors are swirling about several core players other teams are eyeing. The stove is getting hot…