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    Twins 6, Red Sox 0: A Shutout for Joe Ryan and a BIG Win for the Twins


    Sherry Cerny

    The Twins and Red Sox finished their four-game series on Thursday afternoon after an electric ten-inning win on Wednesday night. Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton got things going early, and Joe Ryan did something no Twins pitcher had done in five years. The feeling in the stadium was electric and the energy carried the players through the game.

    Image courtesy of Jeffrey Becker, USA Today

    Twins Video

    Box Score
    SP: Joe Ryan: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K (112 pitches, 83 strikes (74.1%))
    Home Runs:  Carlos Correa (10), Byron Buxton 2 (13)
    Top 3 WPA: Joe Ryan (.197), Byron Buxton (.132), Carlos Correa (.086),
    Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)
    image.png.24165c0c2e36490403ef50052004e20c.png

    The Twins...and Buck...are Back?
    The Twins were still feeling the fire from Wednesday night when Thursday's game against the Red Sox began. The Twins started the first inning mashing baseballs giving the Twins a 2-0 lead. Carlos Correa, who has found his groove again, started out in the first inning getting the Twins on the board with a solo home run, Two batters later another solo home run was hit by Byron Buxton - the second longest home run of his career (466 feet). 

    Red Sox "bulk" pitcher Brandon Walter had a difficult time keeping the Twins from manufacturing runs, something they have desperately needed to do as of late. A single from Ryan Jeffers started out the second inning followed by a double from Willi Castro and another double from Michael A. Taylor brought home both Jeffers and Castro, giving the Twins a 4-0 lead. 

    The second inning was strategically different than anticipated. Donovan Solano pinch hit for Edouard Julien against the lefty, and Kyle Farmer pinch hit for Alex Kirilloff. Julien has a wOBA of .127 against lefties.

    The weirdness of the second inning continued when the Twins had two on. With one out, Michael A. Taylor took off for third base (stolen base attempt). Farmer's fly ball to deep center was caught on the warning track. Taylor was thinking stolen base, so he slid headfirst into third base, looked up to see the fly out, and did not retouch third base before retreating back to second allowing Rafael Devers to force an out, ending the inning. 

    Buxton had a day. Hitting his 12th and 13th home runs of the season, he also hit two of his three longest home runs today (466ft and 465ft). The longest one he ever hit was off of Liam Hendricks for 496 feet. Buxton certainly has struggled through some stretches this season in the DH position, some fans even calling for him to return to the IL until he is “better”. His second home run of the day gave the Twins a 5-0 lead over the Red Sox.

    A Complete Game Shutout for Joe Ryan
    The pitching from the club has kept them afloat much of the season.  Joe Ryan put on a clinic from the mound. After his last appearance, Ryan seemed to have gathered himself. 

    Ryan only threw 33 pitches through the first five innings, didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning, and didn’t allow a single run, against the Red Sox line-up. Ryan has been working on his splitter with pitching coach, Pete Maki, and he used it often in this one.

    Ryan’s ability to control the lineup gave the manager the confidence to keep him in the game. It was Ryan's first complete game and shut out of his career and the first complete game shutout for the Twins in the past five seasons!

    The most pitches that Ryan has thrown in a game this season was 107. In Thursday’s game he threw 112, struck out nine batters, three of those batters struck out swinging back to back in the fifth inning.  

    Ending on a High Note
    The rest of the game was a cake-walk for the Twins, something that gave the club and the fans a lot to cheer about. The fifth inning started out with a lead off walk from Farmer, who advanced with every at-bat from his teammates keeping the pressure on the Red Sox. He eventually made it to third base. Royce Lewis stepped up to the plate and blooped a ball to centerfield that dropped right in between the three outfielders to drive in Farmer and give the Twins the 6-0 lead. 

    The score stayed at 6-0 throughout the remainder of the game, giving the Twins the win and the series tie. They also returned to .500 before starting their road trip with the Tigers. 

    What’s Next? 
    Tomorrow the Twins start a series in Detroit against the Tigers starting with Kenta Maeda taking the mound. The Twins didn’t fare very well last weekend against the Tigers losing the series (3-1), hopefully the Twins can take a series from the Tigers. 
    Friday 6:40 pm: RHP Kenta Maeda (0-4 9.00 ERA) vs. LHP Joey Wentz (1-7, 6.82 ERA)
    Saturday 7:15 pm: RHP Pablo Lopez (3-4, 3.40 ERA) vs. RHP Reese Olson (0-2, 5.59 ERA)
    Sunday 1:40 pm: RHP Bailey Ober (4-4, 2.83 ERA) vs. RHP Michael Lorenzen (2-5, 4.00 ERA)

    Postgame Interviews

     

     

    BULLPEN CHART 

      SUN MON TUE WED THU TOT
    Headrick 0 0 41 0 0 41
    Morán 11 13 0 17 0 41
    Balazovic 40 0 0 0 0 40
    Durán 0 0 0 32 0 32
    De León 0 25 0 0 0 25
    Jax 0 10 0 8 0 18
    Pagán 0 17 0 0 0 17
    Ortega 0 0 16 0 0 16
    Stewart 0 0 0 15 0 15

     

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    Marek Houston

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    Friday night, Marek Houston's first homer came in a 6-run 7th inning. His second home run gave his team an 8-2 lead an inning later. He's 3-for-5, 2 HR (5) and a stolen base, his 15th.

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    9 hours ago, jkcarew said:

    Complete game is one thing...but complete game shutout is something else again. They’ve never been ‘easy’ or ‘common’.

    Verlander has 9; Kershaw 15; Santana and Radke both had 10.

    Congrats, Joe!

    For some historical perspective, Bert Blyleven had sixty (60).

    Sixty shutouts.

    Great win.  Great job Joe Ryan.   Ert Blyleven and his 61 career shutout wins I'm sure is very proud of you as well.  Very nice two games against Boston.  Now on to Detroit.  Let's not blow this opportunity This time.  Remember last week when we played two great games against Brewers then laid an egg by losing 3 of 4 to Tigers and first two of Boston series and playing very poor baseball losing 5 of 6.  With Braves and Orioles coming up we cannot afford to lay another egg.  We all keep hoping that something sparks the team into a win ING streak.  Buxton?  Good for him.  Let's face the facts here.  A 3 game hitting g streak albeit a nice and timely one doesn't erase the otherwise poor year he is having.  When he is hitting poorly the manager is quick to point out its due to his injuries.  It's funny how the injury talk goes away when he gets in one of his increasingly infrequent hot streaks.  But we need buck and Carlos if we are to really be competitive.  Let's sweep the Tigers.  Go Twins

    8 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

    9 inning, 112 pitches, 9 ks, no walks and 3 hits later...

    I didn't see it mentioned anywhere that Ryan threw a no-walker. Was everyone making sure they didn't discuss it to keep from jinxing the no-walker? Is that the first no-walker of the 2023 season? Who is the last pitcher to throw a no-walker?

    55 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

    For some historical perspective, Bert Blyleven had sixty (60).

    Sixty shutouts.

    What the those pitchers did was absolutely amazing. it is pretty obvious no pitcher will likely ever do that again, and probably won't even get close to completing that many games. So the question becomes will a Twins pitcher get to 60 wins? Gibson got to 67 as a Twins and Berrios got to 55 as Twins. Joe Ryan is sitting at 23 right now.

    With that said half of the runs didn't come via a solo homer, which is a good sign. The hits doubled the K's another good sign, Gallo didn't play another good sign. Don't understand pinch hitting for your #3 batter but that can be forgiven today. Ryan was amazing and efficient and when talking about the best starters in the American league he should be right there with McClanahan after the 3 studs (Cole, Valdez, and Eovaldi)

    I also think it was hugely important he didn't walk a batter, because if he did he likely wouldn't have been give a chance to complete the game. By my math he was sitting at 98 pitches after the 8th, add another 4 plus pitches and there is really no chance he coming back out in the 9th.

    Now lets see this offense continue to hit and score and the starters go a bit further so we don't have to see this ratty arse bullpen pitch too much.

    1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

    For some historical perspective, Bert Blyleven had sixty (60).

    Sixty shutouts.

    Along with 242 complete games, and 287 wins.  And he couldn't make the HOF until, what, his last year of eligibility?  How can anyone make the HOF again if that standard is marginal?  JR will never reach those numbers, but he is blossoming into a staff ace.  

    3 hours ago, USAFChief said:

    For some historical perspective, Bert Blyleven had sixty (60).

    Sixty shutouts.

    Yeah...didn't want to mention that 😉

    But, yeah....Blyleven was not normal. Incredibly underappreciated in his time because of the really bad offensive teams he pitched for (until the back end of his career).

    I just did some checking...about 1 out of every 11 Blyleven starts resulted in a complete game shutout. The list of players who did better than this are almost all dead-ball era guys (e.g., Grover Cleveland Alexander, Walter Johnson)...or players who had the heart of their career before the mound was lowered in 1969 (e.g., Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson).

    The guys that remain better than Blyleven in this regard...Jim Palmer, Tom Seaver, Louis Tiant (although, Tiant's career straddled the mound change.) That's it.

    Blyleven threw complete game shutouts more frequently than...

    Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton (career straddled mound change), Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens...and everybody else.

    50 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

    Yeah...didn't want to mention that 😉

    But, yeah....Blyleven was not normal. Incredibly underappreciated in his time because of the really bad offensive teams he pitched for (until the back end of his career).

    I just did some checking...about 1 out of every 11 Blyleven starts resulted in a complete game shutout. The list of players who did better than this are almost all dead-ball era guys (e.g., Grover Cleveland Alexander, Walter Johnson)...or players who had the heart of their career before the mound was lowered in 1969 (e.g., Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson).

    The guys that remain better than Blyleven in this regard...Jim Palmer, Tom Seaver, Louis Tiant (although, Tiant's career straddled the mound change.) That's it.

    Blyleven threw complete game shutouts more frequently than...

    Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton (career straddled mound change), Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens...and everybody else.

    I'm too lazy to look it up, but IIRC Bert also suffered 50-some 1-0 losses over his career.

     

    3 hours ago, Mark G said:

    Along with 242 complete games, and 287 wins.  And he couldn't make the HOF until, what, his last year of eligibility?  How can anyone make the HOF again if that standard is marginal?  JR will never reach those numbers, but he is blossoming into a staff ace.  

    I read an article ( I will see if I can find it )talking about the end of HOF pitchers, the pitchers that will be up for the HOF after Verlander, Kershaw and Scherzer numbers are going to look so bad compared to the HOF's, If you look at the active win leaders there are 4 over 200 (Verlander - 246, Greinke, Scherzer and Kershaw) if any beside Verlander gets to 250 that would be a surprise. Gerrit Cole has 138 at age 32 (he has to average 14 wins the next 8 years to get to 250), then the leader under the age of 30 is..........................Jose Berrios with 79. Nola does have 84 at age 30.

    Next after Berrios is Marquez (28) with 65 wins, Bieber (28) has 59. One of the greatest pitchers I have seen has 84 at age 35 (deGrom)

    Wrong thread for this but Joe Ryan is 27 and has 23 wins, 

    33 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

    I read an article ( I will see if I can find it )talking about the end of HOF pitchers, the pitchers that will be up for the HOF after Verlander, Kershaw and Scherzer numbers are going to look so bad compared to the HOF's, If you look at the active win leaders there are 4 over 200 (Verlander - 246, Greinke, Scherzer and Kershaw) if any beside Verlander gets to 250 that would be a surprise. Gerrit Cole has 138 at age 32 (he has to average 14 wins the next 8 years to get to 250), then the leader under the age of 30 is..........................Jose Berrios with 79. Nola does have 84 at age 30.

    Next after Berrios is Marquez (28) with 65 wins, Bieber (28) has 59. One of the greatest pitchers I have seen has 84 at age 35 (deGrom)

    Wrong thread for this but Joe Ryan is 27 and has 23 wins, 

    Johan Santana and David Cone look really good compared to the current generation of starting pitchers. Yet they couldn't even stay on the ballot.

    1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

    I read an article ( I will see if I can find it )talking about the end of HOF pitchers, the pitchers that will be up for the HOF after Verlander, Kershaw and Scherzer numbers are going to look so bad compared to the HOF's, If you look at the active win leaders there are 4 over 200 (Verlander - 246, Greinke, Scherzer and Kershaw) if any beside Verlander gets to 250 that would be a surprise. Gerrit Cole has 138 at age 32 (he has to average 14 wins the next 8 years to get to 250), then the leader under the age of 30 is..........................Jose Berrios with 79. Nola does have 84 at age 30.

    Next after Berrios is Marquez (28) with 65 wins, Bieber (28) has 59. One of the greatest pitchers I have seen has 84 at age 35 (deGrom)

    Wrong thread for this but Joe Ryan is 27 and has 23 wins, 

    Fwiw…HOF-wise, I think pitchers will start getting evaluated/recognized against different criteria since even the best will be denied opportunity to reach some of the traditional counting stats…although I think longevity will always hold some sway.

    The very best of EVERY era (and only the very best) belong in the hall, IMO.

    4 hours ago, USAFChief said:

    I'm too lazy to look it up, but IIRC Bert also suffered 50-some 1-0 losses over his career.

     

    Don't forget  he gave up 46 homers  in 1987 but mostly solos and they didn't  hurt as much so he keeps saying ..

    Bert being Bert  ...

    21 hours ago, jkcarew said:

    Fwiw…HOF-wise, I think pitchers will start getting evaluated/recognized against different criteria since even the best will be denied opportunity to reach some of the traditional counting stats…although I think longevity will always hold some sway.

    The very best of EVERY era (and only the very best) belong in the hall, IMO.

    What type of Criteria? Some of the better starters might not even get to the counting numbers of some of the relief pitchers in the HOF.

    Who is the best starters from this ERA, it seems like it is still the older group. Verlander, Max, Clayton, then Cole. then a whole bunch of pitchers in their late 20's early 30's with very little counting stats. I mean right now Berrios is kind of the counting stat leader in the age group.




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