Ryan gives Twins much-needed brilliant start to help them snap skid

MINNEAPOLIS -- To say that the Twins were in need of a strong performance from their starting pitcher is to undersell the situation. They were absolutely starved for it.

Fortunately, they got more than strong on Wednesday. They got brilliant. Joe Ryan absolutely stifled the Mariners with six shutout innings as the Twins snapped a five-game losing streak by beating Seattle, 2-0, at Target Field.

With Pablo López on the injured list, Ryan carries the mantle of ace by himself, and on Wednesday he looked to be every bit worthy of the title. He and three relievers combined for the Twins’ first shutout since May 17.

“I think he likes being the man and I think he likes having the ball in his hands,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “That always holds true, but the way he approached his outing today, the way he was so composed, but also pretty electric, the way he threw the ball was just very impressive beginning to end.”

He surrendered three hits, hit a batter, did not allow a walk and became the second pitcher in 2025 to strike out slugger Cal Raleigh three times in a game, joining San Diego's Michael King. And he did so creatively, mixing six pitches and throwing unexpected pitches in some big moments.

“Vazky [catcher Christian Vázquez] did a great job calling the game,” Ryan said, “and we had a couple areas where like, ‘All right, let’s try this, let’s try that.’ It was just fun, and one thing to talk about is just the art of pitching a little bit more and using that. I think we did a good job of that tonight.”

Twins pitchers had been reached for 52 runs in the first five games of the team’s current homestand and had allowed more than 8 runs per game over their previous 14 games. The team had been 4-15 since López’s injury and had a 7.31 ERA in that span.

Ryan put all that in the rearview for one night, keeping Seattle hitters off balance throughout his outing. He outdueled George Kirby, who was very nearly as effective over his own six strong innings.

“He's a good pitcher,” Kirby said. “With guys like that, you know you're going to have to get ahead and just make good pitches, because they're probably doing the same thing on the other side too. So you've just got to bear down and get ahead and get guys out."

Ryan not only put a stop to his team’s skid, he reversed a bit of a slump of his own. The right-hander had a 4.43 ERA and 11 walks over his previous four starts -- not disastrous by any means, but not up to his own standards.

“It was a good group effort all around, and just built a good plan and executed it well,” he said. “Vazky did a great job calling that. Good job with eliminating the running game there. That was huge. Yeah, a lot of good things all around.”

He even worked around trouble, which has been another bugaboo for Twins pitchers lately. Ryan dodged a hit batter and a stolen base in the first, an error and a single in the second, a single and an error in the fourth and a single in the sixth.

At times during the Twins’ skid, innings have gotten away from them. They had allowed four or more runs in seven different innings over their previous five games. There were no such blowups Wednesday.

“Sometimes you're going to have to pitch around things,” Baldelli said. “He didn't look frazzled in any way. He just looked very relaxed and kept doing a good job. He made a lot of good pitches. The stuff was good. It didn't really change throughout the game. It just looked solid throughout.”