Joe Ryan needed a start like this, and he picked a good building for it. The Minnesota Twins right-hander held the New York Yankees to three hits over seven scoreless innings in Sunday’s 6-1 win, striking out nine against a single walk. Five days earlier in Houston he had lasted four innings and allowed six earned runs. The correction was thorough.
Ryan’s season line now reads 6-5 with a 3.36 ERA, 122 strikeouts in 104.1 innings and a 1.04 WHIP. Those numbers travel. ESPN’s Buster Olney has reported that rival executives consider Ryan likely to be one of the most sought-after starting pitchers in this month’s trade market, and outings like Sunday’s — nine strikeouts, in that ballpark, against that lineup — are precisely the ones scouts in the seats write down. Whether Minnesota, now 44-47 and four games back in the AL Central, treats July as a push or a sell-off remains the organization’s central question. Ryan is not making the decision easier.
The offense supplied more than enough. Brooks Lee went 3-for-5 with a double, Austin Martin reached base four times and scored twice, and Royce Lewis drove in two with a pair of hits, including a double. Yankees starter Ryan Weathers absorbed the damage — four earned runs in four innings — and New York’s only run came against the bullpen after Ryan had departed.
The quiet detail worth keeping: Minnesota has won two straight, sits 6-4 over its last ten, and has done this while getting steady at-bats from its middle infield rather than waiting on one big swing. Six runs on twelve hits with no home runs is a repeatable formula when the starter hands the bullpen a five-run lead.
The Twins are off Monday, then host the Cleveland Guardians beginning Tuesday — a series with direct standings consequences for a team that has climbed back within sight of .500.
