Twins' quiet bats overshadow Ryan's strong start

PITTSBURGH -- Joe Ryan was looking to get back on track following his worst outing of the season last Saturday against Houston in which he was tagged for a season-high four home runs. While his effort Friday night may not have been enough for the Twins to earn a series-opening victory against the Pirates, it was certainly enough to make manager Rocco Baldelli feel pretty confident about his No. 2 starter as the team enters the second week of June.

The right-hander struck out eight batters over seven innings in a 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh at PNC Park. Ryan allowed just two hits -- one being a Statcast-projected 422-foot home run to Oneil Cruz in the second inning -- to go along with a pair of walks. The only other blemish in his outing came in the fourth inning after Pirates left fielder Bryan Reynolds doubled to start the frame and later came around to score on a sacrifice fly by second baseman Nick Gonzales.

“[Cruz] is a really good player, obviously,” said Ryan, who needed just 92 pitches (62 strikes) to get through the seven innings. “I left a good pitch to hit in a good spot, and he was looking there.”

Starting with the sacrifice fly to Gonzales, Ryan retired 11 Pirates in a row to finish his outing.

“I thought he threw great,” Baldelli said. “We never got going offensively, but he did his part really well. He threw the ball great. He held his stuff all the way to the end of the game, and he made a lot of really good pitches.”

“He found his groove and really was dicing up,” echoed catcher Ryan Jeffers. “There were a couple [pitches] -- obviously, the big swing from Oneil and a couple walks -- that got away from him in the third [inning], but other than that he pitched really well.”

On any other night, Ryan’s effort may have been enough to will his team to victory. Instead, the Minnesota offense went quiet against Pittsburgh starting pitcher Mitch Keller. Despite scattering eight hits, the team left nine runners on base and failed to execute in the game’s most critical situations, going just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

After the game, Baldelli said he didn't want the outcome to take away from how dominant his pitcher was.

“I don't want to kind of mix up the conversation about the game,” Baldelli said. “It’s hard to compare the way he threw the ball to what we could get going offensively. We never got going offensively, but he did his part really well.

“We were looking for something like that, but we didn't get on the board at all offensively. If we just score a few runs, we’re sitting here going, ‘Man, that was a dominant outing.’”

Ryan showed plenty of life on his four-seam fastball, averaging 95.1 mph on the night -- up significantly from his season average of 93.8 -- and reaching as high as 96.8. He also caused opposing bats to swing and miss 36 percent of the time he threw it.

“His fastball was a very live pitch for him again today,” Baldelli said. “We got another extremely competitive and strong outing.”

Despite the outcome in his previous outing, Ryan said he didn't feel that start was as poor as the line showed. He and catcher Christian Vázquez agreed that it was just one misstep on an otherwise strong campaign thus far.

On pace for the best season of his four-year career, Ryan said he is going to continue to stay positive and keep doing his thing.

“I’ve been feeling pretty good, so I’m just trying to focus on those positives and just keep executing,” said Ryan. “I didn't really feel like I was super off the previous outing, they just beat me to it a lot more than I thought. I’m just trying to stay where I’m at and control what I can control.”