The Joe Ryan Game

Twins 6

Red Sox 0

Twins game #3 for me this season was game 10 of a 10 game homestand that saw this team sweep a 2 gamer against then first place Milwaukee, before dropping 3 of 4 in grotesque fashion to the Tigers, and then getting blasted in the first 2 against Boston. They did sneak out a 10th inning walkoff in game 3. 

Which leads us to Thursday afternoon, and the kind of hot sunny (now) summer day that you dream about.

And the Twins played their most complete game in weeks, with their best starting pitching performance in over 5 years. 

The Red Sox went with an opener, and it went poorly. Carlos Correa blasted a solo shot into the second deck, and then a couple batters later Byron Buxton hit an absolute bomb 466 feet that, had it gone much further, would have hit the construction crane.

In the second, Michael A. Taylor hit a 2 run double. Buxton took it a little easy in his next at bat and only hit one 465 feet. Royce Lewis got an RBI single. 

It was more than enough for Joe Ryan. Years of Twins pitching has conditioned us all to not even entertain thoughts of things like complete games or shutouts. The Twins had not had a complete game shutout since Jose Berrios did it early in 2018. But as we got late into this game and Ryan's pitch count was pretty reasonable (the Sox only got 3 singles and never even touched 2nd base) the possibility of that long drought ending became plausible.

Ryan had never even completed 8 before, but he made it through with under 100 pitches. And rare credit to Rocco Baldelli, who never would have given Ryan this shot last year, for sending him back out for the 9th. Ryan was still firing, and retired the Sox in order to finish off the masterful performance (3 hits, 0 walks, 9 strikeouts). He will definitely be a Twins all star next month. 

This was the kind of performances aces are made of. The Twins will need a lot more of these kind of anchor efforts to get this season going.