Braves 6, Twins 2: At Least SOMEONE's Season Got Resurrected This Weekend

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan: 5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 5 K (93 Pitches, 65 Strikes, 69.9%)
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (4)
Bottom 3 WPA: Ryan (-.286), Edouard Julien (-.097), Brooks Lee (-.093)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

The Twins wrapped up their series in Atlanta today after gifting the Braves two winnable games and awakening the perennial contender from its early season doldrums. Joe Ryan got the start for Minnesota, coming off an outing against the Mets in which he labored but gave the Twins five strong innings.

As a California "Deadhead" laboring isn't Ryan's favorite vibe. Teams know that when the righthander is healthy and throwing well, the only way to counter him is to work long at-bats and hope to wear Ryan down, with a solo home run or two thrown in. Unfortunately for Ryan today, the home plate umpire called two clear strikes as balls to second place hitter Austin Riley, extending Ryan's pitch count and turning what looked like a quick inning, into a much longer affair. The horrid Marcell Ozuna worked a walk and Matt Olson finally caught up with a mistake fastball and rocketed a two-run home run to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. Ryan threw 32 pitches in the frame.

That could have been workable except the Twins anemic offense offered no early fight against Braves journeyman starter Kenny Powers Grant Holmes. Following the long inning for Ryan, the Twins went down in order on eight pitches, forcing Ryan back out with hardly a chance to sit down. He retired the first two hitters of the second fairly easily, but then a barrage of singles scored a third run.

The third was similar- after two outs, Michael Harris turned on a hanging splitter and roped it for a double, and then the highly touted rookie Drake Baldwin pounced on a 92 MPH fastball not quite high enough in the zone, and pummeled it the other way for a two-run home run.

The Twins at least made Holmes work in the fourth. After Trevor Larnach ripped a one out single, so did Carlos Correa. Ryan Jeffers was hit by a pitch on his wrist and stayed in the game. After Luke Keaschall popped out, Holmes spiked a slider that Baldwin couldn't handle, allowing Larnach to score the first Twins run. Brooks Lee made good contact in his at-bat, but Harris tracked down the liner in the gap to record the final out.

As expected, a rejuvenated Ryan then had his easiest inning, setting down the Braves 1-2-3.

Holmes continued to struggle with his command, walking the free-swinging Harrison Bader to lead off the fifth before leaving a cutter up for Buxton to lace into the gap for a double. Holmes then walked Ty France, perhaps equal to Bader in free-swingedness, to load the bases. But Larnach struck out looking on the juiciest pitch of the at-bat, a fastball middle-in, and Correa tapped out to get Holmes off the hook.

Ozuna, sadly still not incarcerated, jumped on an inside sinker from Ryan and delivered it into the left field bleachers.

The Twins put two more runners on in the sixth, but Julien tapped out to strand the Twins' eighth runner in a span of three innings.

Buxton did launch a no-doubt home run in the seventh to continue his strong stretch of games.

Louis Varland, Jhoan Duran and Danny Coulombe pitched scoreless innings. All three are having nice years, at least.

Trends:

What’s Next: Bailey Ober (1-1, 6.16 ERA) takes on Davis Martin (1-2, 4.84 ERA) as the Twins open a series at Target Field against the White Sox. Martin has been functional thus, far, but his peripheral numbers are rough. Ober has been pretty good since his opening clunker in St. Louis and will look to continue to have success against a White Sox lineup against whom statistics do count.

Postgame Interviews:

(Coming soon)

Bullpen Usage Chart: