It was quite a Memorial Day performance by the Twins' Joe Ryan.
The young pitcher got through seven smooth innings for the Minnesota Twins, who got a two-run homer by Jose Miranda and a three-run shot from Trevor Larnach before hanging on for a 6-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday in the opener of a four-game series.
"The sweeper felt really good, trying to find the change up and was able to find it a little bit better late, cutter, little short thing, whatever we want to call it is there as well," said Ryan after the game. "So that was good as well. Just good to have options. Having the sinker there is also great and yeah, I mean, they're a really good team. So it was just good to get a win and the offense just scoring so many runs, it allows me to just be a little bit freer in there and get a little bit more rest in between innings."
Ryan allowed one run and four singles while lowering his team-leading ERA to 2.96 and he's impressing manager Rocco Baldelli.
He was awesome, Joe was awesome," Baldelli said. "He's had a few outings like this already this year. Not gonna go say best outing of the year. I mean, when you start throwing the ball like that reasonably often you're doing something really, really right. I think he has to be pleased with a lot of things that he's doing. It's hard to kind of hard to locate and state what he's doing well. It's basically everything he's doing well right now.
Baldelli says Ryan has really developed multiple pitche and he's been able to control all of them.
"He looked really comfortable on the mound, making pitches, breaking ball was really good, different variations of it that he was able to use today," Baldelli explained. "They were good, he was efficient again. Awesome. Just awesome."
GAME 2 PREVIEW
Kansas City Royals (34-21, second in the AL Central) vs. Minnesota Twins (29-24, third in the AL Central)
Minneapolis; Tuesday, 6:40 p.m. Pregame 6:00 p.m. on WCCO Radio and the Audacy App (in-market restrictions apply).
PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Cole Ragans (4-3, 3.34 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 76 strikeouts); Twins: Simeon Woods Richardson (1-0, 2.57 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 26 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Royals -123, Twins +104; over/under is 8 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Minnesota Twins host the Kansas City Royals with a 1-0 series lead.
Minnesota is 14-12 in home games and 29-24 overall. The Twins have an 18-6 record in games when they record at least eight hits.
Kansas City is 13-13 on the road and 34-21 overall. The Royals are 23-9 in games when they record eight or more hits.
The matchup Tuesday is the fifth meeting between these teams this season. The Twins have a 3-1 advantage in the season series.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ryan Jeffers has 12 doubles and 10 home runs while hitting .258 for the Twins. Jose Miranda is 10-for-33 with a double and three home runs over the last 10 games.
Salvador Perez has 11 doubles, nine home runs and 39 RBI for the Royals. Bobby Witt Jr. is 16-for-43 with four doubles, a triple and four home runs over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Twins: 5-5, .222 batting average, 4.70 ERA, outscored by nine runs
Royals: 8-2, .309 batting average, 3.10 ERA, outscored opponents by 33 runs
INJURIES: Twins: Brock Stewart: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Daniel Duarte: 60-Day IL (tricep), Zack Weiss: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Royce Lewis: 10-Day IL (quadricep), Justin Topa: 15-Day IL (knee), Anthony DeSclafani: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Royals: Michael Massey: 10-Day IL (back), Kyle Isbel: day-to-day (face), Josh Taylor: 60-Day IL (biceps), Kris Bubic: 60-Day IL (elbow), Kyle Wright: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
