CLEVELAND – Sometimes everything lines up, and it still doesn’t come together.
The Twins had their ace on the mound. They had their talisman back in the lineup. They were eager to flush their first series loss in weeks and get a critical intradivision series off to a great start. The vibes were good. The atmosphere was positive.
The performance … was not.
Joe Ryan, making his first start since appearing in the All-Star Game, allowed a franchise-record six home runs Monday night as Cleveland drubbed Minnesota, 13-4, in the opener of a vital four-game series at Progressive Field. Ryan found the going rough from the start and never righted the ship, allowing at least one homer in each of his four innings.
“It’s definitely frustrating and not how you want to start a series against these guys where we’re at in the season,” Ryan said.
It was more than enough to cancel out an encouraging return to the lineup from Byron Buxton, who had missed two weeks due to a right hip strain. Buxton beat out an infield single in the first inning and lined a single to right in the third. The Twins managed 10 hits, four for extra bases, but found themselves playing catchup all night, and the deficit was quickly too big to overcome.
So although Minnesota had won eight of the past nine games when Ryan pitched and Buxton was in the lineup, Monday was very much the exception. Ryan absolutely did not have it from the jump, the Twins’ offense made some noise but not enough and it was a completely forgettable night by the banks of Lake Erie. Minnesota has lost three straight after starting the second half on a high note.
“We battled to get back to .500, and the last three days we just have not played well,” said manager Derek Shelton.
And while there’s no such thing as a must-win in July, this one carried a little extra weight. Several of the other contenders in the American League have gotten hot lately as the Twins have encountered their first stumble in quite some time. They’re now five games behind the White Sox in the AL Central, closer to fourth place than second, and three games behind the surging Red Sox for the third Wild Card with two teams in between.
The Twins are very much in the contention picture, but when other teams win, losing is more costly. In this seven-game trip coming out of the All-Star break, Minnesota didn’t necessarily need to win four or five, but to go 3-4 was not an unreasonable expectation.
There’s a strong desire within the Twins’ clubhouse to put pressure on the front office to add players at the Trade Deadline, rather than subtract. The club’s decision-makers prefer to be buyers, rather than sellers, but it has to make sense, and it’s important to come close to a break-even trip in order to keep that pressure on.
Dropping Monday’s game makes that a lot tougher, since Ryan vs. Tanner Bibee was arguably the friendliest pitching matchup the visitors will have in the series. They send Kendry Rojas to the mound Tuesday, most likely followed by Mike Paredes, in what will likely be something of a bullpen game.
The hope was that Ryan, coming off of a superb run into the break, would keep up that form in his first start post-All-Star break. Instead, he left too many balls over the plate and paid the price with a historic night of exactly the wrong sort.
“It seemed like they tried a very accurate game plan tonight,” Ryan said. “Guys that haven’t hit fastballs this year are hitting them over their head [for home runs]. Guys that haven’t hit spin well, hitting spin. Kind of the same thing with the split, maybe a couple [didn’t move] that great. I haven’t gone back and gone through each pitch and stuff, but I think it’s one of those, maybe they know their weakness and … they get to the spot a little bit earlier on a night I don’t have my great stuff.”