ANAHEIM -- As the start of August approached, right-hander Ryan Johnson had struggled most of the year with a 7.63 ERA in 46 innings, but something has clicked for the rookie since then.
Johnson has put together an impressive stretch that shows some promise for the future, including throwing six strong innings in a 2-1 win over the Mariners to clinch the series victory on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium. He gave up just one run on six hits and no walks with seven strikeouts to continue his stellar finish to the year.
“That might be the best game he's pitched this year, honestly,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “What was it, [16] straight to start the game going for strikes? I thought he did a great job of mixing and matching, and he really attacked the strike zone.”
Over his last eight starts, Johnson has posted a 2.03 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 44 1/3 innings, showing much improvement and the ability to attack the strike zone. Overall, he's posted a 4.88 ERA with 70 strikeouts in 90 1/3 innings, and is trying to show that he can stick as a starter going forward.
Johnson was also pleased with his outing, and was relieved that he was fine after being hit by a comebacker from Julio Rodríguez in the second inning. Johnson said adrenaline helped him get through the outing, but he was feeling some soreness and experiencing swelling. He expects to make his next start.
“I was feeling great going into it,” Johnson said. “I really liked where my stuff was at, attacking the zone. I was feeling in control of what I was doing. Even after I got hit, I still felt like I was in the zone and putting pitches where I wanted to.”
He’s excelled under interim pitching coach Tim Leveque, as Johnson has been able to keep up his unorthodox throwing routine that the previous coaches didn’t allow him to do. Johnson, who has plenty of funk in his delivery, is a fan of throwing long toss from foul pole to foul pole in between starts to keep his arm loose.
The club’s second-round pick out of Dallas Baptist University in 2024, Johnson memorably made the Opening Day roster as a reliever in ’25 despite never pitching in the Minors. And this year, he surprisingly made the team as a starting pitcher, only to scuffle early and land on the injured list in April with an illness.
He returned in a relief role in May, but was sent back down to the Minors to stretch out as a starter. He’s been part of the rotation since mid-June, and while he gave up five runs over five innings in his initial outing against the Orioles on June 18, he’s still put up a solid 3.84 ERA in 82 innings over 16 starts since rejoining the rotation.
“It's execution and consistency,” Suzuki said. “He’s got a great routine that he's doing in between starts. You can just see him kind of growing and growing up each day, each start, every time he touches the ball. So it's been awesome.”
As Suzuki mentioned, Johnson threw 16 straight strikes to open his outing on Tuesday, and 67 of his 90 total pitches were for strikes. He consistently got ahead of hitters, throwing first-pitch strikes to 18 of the 25 batters he faced.
He retired the first seven batters of the game before he got into a jam in the third inning, loading the bases with two outs. But he got Dominic Canzone to pop up to end the scoring threat. Johnson also found himself in trouble in the fourth with two runners on and two outs, but struck out Lazaro Montes to get out of the inning.
The lone run he surrendered came in the sixth, when Canzone reached on a leadoff triple that hit off Mike Trout’s glove in center field, and later scored on an RBI double.
Johnson received just enough run support, with Vaughn Grissom connecting on an RBI double in the fifth and Josh Lowe smacking a go-ahead solo blast in the sixth. It helped Johnson outduel right-hander Logan Gilbert to give the Angels the series win.
“RJ pitched his butt off tonight, and to be able to get him a run while he was still in the game to get the lead was awesome,” Lowe said. “I feel like [Johnson] has kind of just changed his pitch usage. Probably gone more cutter and sweeper mix, and guys obviously aren't seeing it as well. So, good for him for making an adjustment.”