Tag Archives: Joe Ryan

2023 Game 168: Houston Astros at Minnesota Twins (and NLDS Games 3)

José Urquidy
vs
Joe Ryan
FS1 at 6:07 p.m. CDT

NLDS games:
TBD vs Aaron Nola, TBS at 4:07 p.m.

Lance Lynn vs Brandon Pfaady, TBS at 8:07 p.m.

Urquidy's strikeout rate is down compared to last year (6.4 K/9 compared to 7.3 K/9 last year), his walk rate is up (+1.5 BB/9) and his home run rate is steady yet high (1.6 HR/9). All of these things match up well with what Twins batters can feast on. The rest of the league already has with his 5.39 ERA this year in 61 innings. I doubt Houston will let him pitch deep so Twins need to get their scoring in early and often.

2023 Game 140: Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Guardians

Day game alert!

Joe Ryan
vs
Gavin Williams

A much better showing against Cleveland this year in September that last year. The division is nearly clinched so finishing off the sweep will cut the magic number to 15, give the Twins a winning record against Cleveland, and put them into the (AL Central) vaunted air of eight games over .500.

Gavin started the middle game of the series in Minnesota, pitching only a single inning due to injury. He hasn't pitched since so it might be another short start from either injury or rust.

2023 Game 109: Minnesota Twins at St. Louis Cardinals

Joe Ryan
vs
Dakota Hudson

Yesterday's game marked two-thirds of the season. Pro-rating to the full 162 games puts the Twins at 82.5 wins, a mere tenth of a win below their preseason forecast. FanGraphs is more optimistic now, projecting them at 83.5 wins.

Cardinals tore it down while the Twins did nothing (on deadline day). I can't really blame them after making big trades last year that did poorly. Sure would be nice to have Steer's .320/.377/.602 versus lefties with the Twins this year.

2023 Game 104: Seattle Mariners at Minnesota Twins

Day game alert!

Bryce Miller
vs
Joe Ryan

Another solid start wasted by the bullpen. The batters however did their part with seven runs.

This is Bryce Miller's rookie season. BA and MLB prospect rankings had him at the end of their top 100 lists at #100 and #98 respectively. 13 starts in and he's done well. 3.50 ERA (3.48 FIP) over 69 ⅓ innings. Almost a strikeout per inning and only 1.9 walks per nine for a 0.966 WHIP. In terms of results, it's very similar to Joe Ryan except Miller throws harder. He's a fastball/slider guy and he throws the fastball around 68% of the time. That should bode well for the Twins hitters if he misses with any of those fastball.

2023 Game 76 – BoSox at Twins

The Twins pulled off a pretty exciting extra-innings walk-off win last night, despite the combined efforts of the Red Sox and the blue shirts. The Gallo/Baldelli ejections got the crowd pretty worked up, and the  out call on MAT at first base on the sacrifice,  a bad call upheld by an even worse replay review -- well, let's just say things got fairly raucous and I had to issue a few polite reminders about profanity to nearby fans. At any rate, it was a sorely needed win, it was good to see Rocco get lathered up, and hopefully the win can spark a return to the form we saw early in the season when the pitching and hitting were on the same page in the same book most of the time.

Today the Twins wrap up a long homestand and their 4-game series with Boston with a businessman's special. Young Joe Ryan, 7-4 with a 3.30 ERA and 91 strikeouts, slings for the Minnesota nine with Justin Garza on the hill for the Sox. He's 0-1 and this appears to be his first start of the season, he's thrown 13 innings of relief in 12 games in 2023. Not sure how long he'll go, this could be a bullpen start for Boston and Garza is just the first leg.

Play ball!

Game 65: twins @ blue jays

Your Minnesota Twins are currently a .500 team.

In most divisions, that would rightfully place them right around the middle of the standings. In the AL east, it would have them in dead last place.

Ah, but we don't play in any of THOSE divisions...

Joe Ryan takes to the mound to keep the modest winning streak (currently at one game) alive. The Blue Jays are going to send Alek Manoah......'s temporary replacement, Bowden Francis. This will be Francis's first major league start, and considering he hasn't completed five innings in a minor league start yet this season, I wouldn't get too accustomed to seeing him in the mound today. I would bet he doesn't get more than eight or nine strikeouts.

After last night, the Twins are 28-11 in games where they score 3 or more runs. I think I see a sneaky key to the game: score runs. I'm hoping Rocco has seen something similar and am curious whether he'd exploit a strategy which allows them to take advantage of it.

Go Twins!

Happy Birthday–June 5

Jack Chesbro (1874)
Sandy Thompson (1895)
Harry Williams (1905)
Eddie Joost (1916)
Lou Brissie (1924)
Duke Sims (1941)
Bill Spiers (1966)
Ray Lankford (1967)
Mike Coolbaugh (1972)
Russ Ortiz (1974)
Robinson Chirinos (1984)
Jake Petricka (1988)
Andrew Heaney (1991)
Dereck Rodriguez (1992)
Joe Ryan (1996)
Royce Lewis (1999)

Prior to beginning his major league career, Lou Brissie served in World War II.  He suffered severe leg injuries, receiving the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts, but overcame his injuries to spend seven years in the majors.

Mike Coolbaugh was the first base coach for the Tulsa Drillers when he was struck on the head with a line drive and killed.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–June 5