Joe Ryan regularly has handcuffed the Kansas City Royals in eight career starts against them.
The Minnesota Twins right-hander will look to improve to 7-0 against the Royals when he takes the mound on Wednesday night in Kansas City.
Ryan has struck out 55 Royals in 48 1/3 innings. He has given up two runs or fewer in each outing with his top performance coming when he tossed seven no-hit innings during a 6-3 victory over Kansas City on Sept. 13, 2022.
Ryan was removed after 106 pitches that day. The combined no-hit bid ended with one out in the top of the ninth as Kansas City produced three runs and two hits against Jovani Moran.
Ryan, 28, faced the Royals twice last season, going 1-0 with a 1.46 ERA.
Maikel Garcia (2-for-9) and Vinnie Pasquantino (2-for-12) each have homered off Ryan. MJ Melendez (1-for-15, 10 strikeouts) and Kyle Isbel (1-for-12) are among the Royals who have struggled against Ryan.
Ryan (0-1, 4.50 ERA) lost to the Houston Astros last Thursday, allowing four runs and five hits over five innings. He struck out six and walked none.
Ryan will now look to halt Kansas City’s success against the Twins. Tuesday’s 2-1 win was the Royals’ second straight in this four-game series and sixth in a row overall against Minnesota.
Kansas City had just three hits but star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. manufactured the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
There was one out when Witt hit a slow tapper back to Minnesota reliever Griffin Jax. Instead of the inning’s second out, Jax tossed the ball high over first base and it rolled down the right-field line.
Witt didn’t stop running and slid head-first safely into third base. Pasquantino followed with a slow bouncer to first base and Witt scored without a throw to give Kansas City the lead.
“It’s insane,” Pasquantino said of Witt. “He took over that game like very few people can do. I don’t mean in a slugging percentage way but in a ‘Oh My God, he’s so fast.’ Just the pressure he puts on.
“It was just a full takeover on the base paths by him. Without him, we don’t win this game.”
Witt also scored Kansas City’s other run after stroking a one-out double in the fourth.
Royals right-hander Seth Lugo looks to extend Kansas City’s winning streak to four games.
Lugo (1-0, 3.27) defeated the Baltimore Orioles last Friday when he gave up two runs (one earned) and five hits over six innings. He struck out two and walked one.
Lugo, 35, is 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA in seven career appearances (five starts) against Minnesota.
Willi Castro is 4-for-8 and Christian Vazquez is 2-for-8 with two homers against Lugo. Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa are each 1-for-8.
Correa had Minnesota’s biggest at-bat of Tuesday’s game as he came to plate with the scored tied in the eighth and runners on the corners with one out.
Kansas City reliever John Schreiber won the battle by getting Correa to ground the ball to Witt, who started an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
“We want Carlos Correa up in that spot every time — every time,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We have that situation with the chance to take the lead and him at the plate and all the makings of an excellent game-winning situation right there. And he happened to hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop.”
Minnesota also committed three errors as it lost for the third straight game and eighth time in 11 games, continuing its worst start since 2016.
“We have tons of baseball to play here — months and months — and there are times when you don’t look like yourself,” Baldelli said. “I am going to continue to show belief and trust in our guys.”
–Field Level Media
