KANSAS CITY -- If he had it to do over again, Joe Ryan might not have asked out of his start Saturday. But he might have at least raised the possibility.
Ryan, who has been dealing with a flu-like illness this week, suffered his worst start of the year and the shortest non-injury-affected start of his career in an 11-2 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. He was charged with five runs on four hits and four walks in two innings, departing after 62 pitches.
“It’s frustrating as a competitor,” he said. “Regardless of how the season’s going, I feel like you always want to [take the mound]. You don’t want to look in the offseason and be like, damn, I wish I could’ve had another start here or there. But I think going forward, I need to be better at that probably. Managing myself a little bit better.”
Ryan’s average four-seam fastball velocity was near his season average, but his location was nowhere near his usual accuracy. He threw barely more than half his pitches for strikes (33 of 62, 53.2 percent) and said that overall it took a great deal of effort to get the usual zip on his pitches.
“I felt the energy levels were probably the most difficult part,” he said. “Because if it clicked, I could see the stuff was there and there was some adrenaline like always. And then it was just like, after that many pitches, it was just inconsistent. Ebbing and flowing, just trying to find it. Just having to make adjustments to try to get the velo there. Then the command was just off. So it was super frustrating.”
Manager Rocco Baldelli said he had no regrets about starting Ryan based on what he and the team’s staff knew going into the game. He acknowledged that it’s a difficult line for a starting pitcher to walk when he wants to be there for his team but knows he might be compromised.
“With any player, whether you’re a pitcher or a position player, those are things you do pick up and think about and figure out as time goes on in your career,” Baldelli said. “Having experienced it now, we all have days that we would look at and say, ‘You know what, I might have approached that a little bit differently the next time.’ That’s obviously a pretty good and honest perspective coming from him. Sometimes you only know after the fact because you’re competitive.
“Nobody wants to ask out of a game, but if you’re at that point, you will learn how to do that. We’ll talk to Joe. I’ll talk to Joe. I’m sure the medical staff will obviously be talking to Joe. We’ll see how he comes out over the next few days. Obviously not the game we wanted today, especially that he wanted. Not the game that he wanted. But we’ll learn from it and we’ll keep moving forward.”
Holding pattern on Jeffers
The Twins continued to wait on further clarity on the status of catcher Ryan Jeffers, who suffered what the club called a head contusion on Thursday against the White Sox. No roster move has yet been made with Jeffers, but he has not played since that game, when he was struck twice on the mask by foul balls.
Mickey Gasper got the start at catcher on Saturday, after Jhonny Pereda made his first Twins appearance with a start behind the plate on Friday. Jeffers is still considered to be in an evaluation period as a result of the injury. It is still a possibility that the Twins may place Jeffers on the injured list.
Twins tidbits
Byron Buxton tripled on Saturday, his third triple in four games. Each of his past eight hits has gone for extra bases. … Trevor Larnach saw a seven-game hitting streak come to an end. … Right-hander Travis Adams “graduated” from prospect status due to service time on Saturday, and outfielder Kala’i Rosario moved into the Twins rankings as the No. 30 prospect. Rosario is having a huge year, with a Double-A Wichita record 25 home runs as well as 87 runs, 83 RBIs, and 26 steals.