BOSTON -- Joe Ryan finished his follow-through and, in one motion, stepped backwards off the Fenway Park mound, snapping his gum after getting Romy Gonzalez to chase on a sweeper way outside the zone to end the sixth.
Coming off an 11-strikeout gem in which he recorded a career-high 26 whiffs in seven scoreless innings against the Angels, Ryan held a lefty-heavy Red Sox lineup to four hits and one run, striking out eight and walking one in Friday’s series opener.
“They’re putting us in position to win every single night,” manager Rocco Baldelli said of the Twins’ starters pregame. “We’re sitting there in late-inning situations, really on the regular, where there’s runners out there and it takes a swing to bring them in and really win the game.”
Ryan put the Twins in position, but a few miscues late in the game and the absence of a big swing resulted in Minnesota falling, 6-1, to the Red Sox for its fourth straight loss.
Friday night followed a script that’s become all too familiar for the Twins, who went on a hot streak in mid-April before cooling off to close the month: A strong outing from the starter giving way to a close game late that quickly slips away.
It’s what happened on Thursday night in Cleveland after Simeon Woods Richardson held the Guardians to two runs over 4 2/3 innings. The Twins hung in through two rain delays and extra innings, only to be walked off by Cleveland in the 10th.
Friday was a different song but the same tune. A pitchers' duel that saw each starter allow just a solo homer gave way in the seventh and eighth innings, when the Red Sox put up two- and three-run rallies.
Prior to the Red Sox breaking the game open, the Twins squandered a scoring opportunity when Edouard Julien was caught stealing to end the first half of the seventh. After drawing a one-out walk, Julien attempted to steal second, but slid off the back side of the bag and was tagged out by second baseman David Hamilton.
“I saw him catch the ball up front and I tried to go in the back. It was probably a bad slide,” Julien said. “I need to slide right on the bag, especially against a lefty that is slow to the plate. I had it. I [thought] I was going to be safe.”
Julien got a good jump after first-base coach Ramon Borrego told him to be ready in case he was given the green light to run on lefty reliever Justin Wilson.
“You have to go out of your way and make plays, that’s what you have to do,” Baldelli said. “We’re not gonna be shy about it, we’re not gonna look away. We’re gonna be running and sending guys when we think they should be able to steal the base.”
Ryan Jeffers put the Twins on the board with his solo shot in the third off Red Sox starter Brayan Bello. Jeffers’ homer came off the bat at 108.9 mph for one of 10 hard hits by Minnesota against the right-hander.
“Felt good,” Ryan said. “Just did some things differently in the last outing that we’re trying to build on mechanically with the lower half, so it felt good just to keep that rolling, and [it] helps all my pitches. Jeffers did another outstanding job today just calling a great game -- good setups, good communication in between innings, so that was awesome. And then for him to get a nice homer, it’s always fun. I tip my cap to him.”
The Twins put up solid at-bats against Bello, with a number of their hard hits resulting in singles courtesy of the Green Monster and a left fielder who knows how to play the wall in Jarren Duran.
The makings are there, but it’s putting everything together that’s eluded the Twins. Perfecting the routine plays, having productive at-bats and exuding confidence are all things that Baldelli hopes to see from his team as the season progresses.
“We’re going to learn a lot about ourselves, because we’re grinding to put it together and to score,” Baldelli said. “And I don’t think we’re missing how we’re working, how we’re getting ready. We gotta have that confidence and bring it into the game and do it in the game.”