Unlucky breaks lead to backbreaking slam as 4th inning unravels for Ryan

HOUSTON -- If you found yourself rubbing your eyes and wondering what in the world just happened after the fourth inning Tuesday night, you weren’t alone.

Joe Ryan felt the same way.

The Twins’ ace had some of his best stuff of the year, and through 3 1/3 innings, he and the Twins seemed to be in firm control of what would have been their seventh win in their last eight road games. But then one at-bat after another turned against him, and in a span of minutes, a comfortable lead had turned into a six-run inning, Ryan’s shortest non-injury-shortened start in almost three months, and a 6-4 defeat to the Astros.

“It’s a tough one to digest,” said Ryan, who allowed his most earned runs since Aug. 25 of last year in Toronto.

Six runs were charged to Ryan even though he really only made one pitch that you’d consider a mistake in the conventional sense. A series of good swings on good pitches, a pitch not challenged, a successful challenge, and a grounder that ate up Royce Lewis put Ryan in deep danger.

And then came that one mistake, a sinker over the plate to the one Astros hitter to whom you can’t leave the ball over the middle of the plate. Ryan said he viewed it as more a selection mistake than a location one, but regardless, Yordan Alvarez hit it a very long way for a grand slam that was the difference in the game.

Ryan was done after 12 outs and 91 pitches, and he was spent by the time he was lifted.

“I think it’s just the amount of pitches that I’m throwing,” Ryan said. “It’s the most exhausted I’ve ever been on the baseball field since I’ve been in the big leagues. Just a lot of foul balls, put the ball in play and they get on.”

Holding a 3-0 lead, Ryan opened the inning by getting Christian Walker to ground out. Cam Smith somehow hit a sharp single on a fastball that was well off the outside edge of the plate to start the rally. Taylor Trammell hit a sweeper that was well inside and off the plate for another single. The ball took a funky hop, but it’s probably a play that Lewis should have made at first base.

Ryan made another good pitch to Yainer Diaz, a sweeper at the very bottom of the zone, and – you guessed it – Diaz got a bat on it for a single. It was 3-1, but after Ryan struck out Nick Allen, he was one pitch from getting out of the inning. He didn’t get it.

With men on the corners, two outs, and a two-run lead intact, Ryan went to a full count on No. 9 hitter Raynel Delgado. The payoff pitch appeared to clip the zone, but catcher Victor Caratini did not challenge and Delgado walked. The Twins have a policy that pitchers are not permitted to challenge, but Ryan regretted not bucking it.

“That's a situation where I should probably tap the hat and get out of it with [one] run and still probably we win that ballgame,” he said.

Even so, the lead was still two runs for Jose Altuve, who worked another full count. Ryan threw a 3-2 fastball right off the edge of the plate, and was walking off the mound after getting the initial strike call. But Altuve challenged and won, the second run scored on a bases-loaded walk and danger was looming in the form of Alvarez.

“As we've talked about,” manager Derek Shelton said. “We want to try to get Alvarez up as much as possible without guys on base.”

Instead, he came up with the bases loaded. Ryan missed with a first-pitch fastball, induced a foul ball on a splitter below the zone, and then threw a sinker in the zone that Alvarez hammered.

“It's tough,” Ryan said. “They're a really good team and really aggressive, and [it’s] never going to be easy. I'm looking at the [pitch chart] after and it's like, 'Of course the middle-middle ones are popups and outs, and the executed ones are gone or hits.' It's tough.”