Why Ryan fought to get a chance to face reigning champs

MINNEAPOLIS -- Joe Ryan wanted this game. He gave it everything he had, and he had a lot. But he didn’t quite have enough after a week where he battled an illness to stave off a 4-3 Twins loss to Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers on Wednesday night.

Ryan, scratched from his previously scheduled Tuesday start after not feeling well for most of the last week, specifically asked not to be taken off the series against Los Angeles entirely. So he got the ball one day later in a headline matchup against Ohtani in front of the first sellout crowd at Target Field this season.

And even as Ryan himself admitted he wasn’t at his best, he battled, and he did quite a lot right. Ryan struck out nine, walked one, and didn’t even permit that much hard contact. But a Mookie Betts solo homer and a three-run third inning sent him to the loss and the Twins to the receiving end of a home series sweep at the hands of the back-to-back World Series champs.

“I had asked to throw today,” Ryan said. “I wanted to face these guys. I think a couple pitches go a little bit differently and it’s a good outing and we win the baseball game and don’t get swept there. If I could throw this series, I wanted to. And I wanted to face the best team. So yeah, that’s part of it. Shohei is obviously the greatest baseball player ever, so kind of cool to get to toe the rubber against him. But we lost.”

Ryan’s fastball velocity was up from normal, and the 17 swinging strikes by Dodger hitters give you a good idea that his stuff was plenty good. But the ball wasn’t doing exactly what he wanted, he missed a few spots, and he paid the price. Against most teams, on most nights, what Ryan had would have been enough. Against Ohtani, Betts and the Dodgers on Wednesday, it wasn’t.

Betts hit his 300th career homer on a fastball up in the zone in the second. Minnesota took the lead off Ohtani in the bottom of the frame, and then in the third Ryan got in trouble.

Alex Freeland led off with a double on a fastball out over the plate. Ohtani poked a ground-ball single on a pitch that was down out of the strike zone. Ryan struck out Andy Pages but walked Freddie Freeman on four pitches, and Betts singled on a slider up. Max Muncy tied the game on another slider that probably got too much of the zone, and Alex Call delivered the winning sacrifice fly on a sinker up and over the plate.

No egregious mistakes, but the Dodgers make you pay for nearly any mistake. Ryan settled back in to get through the sixth without further damage, but it was enough.

“The results, we were kind of going for some of the stuff we got, they just were in holes,” Ryan said. “Ground balls that just kind of got through. Just part of baseball. I think movement-wise, that’s kind of where command is. If it moves a little bit less or moves a little differently, then it’s not going to go where the intended zone is. … You’re not always going to have your best stuff.”

Still, it’s a credit to Ryan that on a night when he wasn’t his sharpest, he still went toe to toe with Ohtani and the Dodgers in a game the Twins had multiple chances to win.

“He did a good job,” said manager Derek Shelton. “He had the one inning that kind of got away from him a little bit. And you’ve got to give their hitters credit, too. That’s a really potent lineup and the one inning ended up being the determining factor in the game.”