Twins beat Rays, 4-2, behind strong start from Joe Ryan

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on May 27, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

TAMPA, Fla. — Joe Ryan has been one of the better pitchers in the major leagues for the past month, and all the reasons why were on display Tuesday at George Steinbrenner Field.

Ryan, pitching with an uptick in velocity on an 89-degree evening, quieted a hot Tampa Bay Rays lineup and permitted five hits and one run across six innings. It was one of those outings where Ryan was tested, dealing with multiple baserunners in three separate innings, but he never let in as he led the Twins to a 4-2 victory.

The Twins’ offense backed Ryan with an early lead, but he keeps looking like a guy who could earn a spot on an All-Star team. In five starts this month, Ryan posted a 1.86 ERA with 33 strikeouts and five walks in 29 innings.

Ryan survived the first inning after he gave up a single, committed a balk when he reached for the PitchCom device in his cap while on the mound and watched a fly ball drop in left field when Willi Castro lost sight of the ball. With runners on the corners and one out, he simply induced an inning-ending double play.

In the second inning, Jonathan Aranda hit a leadoff double, a shallow fly ball that dropped in left field and bounced out of play. After a sacrifice bunt moved Aranda to third, Ryan escaped again. He struck out a batter and, following a walk, Aranda was thrown out by shortstop Carlos Correa attempting to score on a double steal. Ryan, who kneeled on the mound when catcher Ryan Jeffers’ throw went to second base, gave a thumbs up from his kneeling position when Aranda was tagged out.

Ryan, making his third career start against the team who traded him to the Twins, surrendered two hits in the fourth inning, including an RBI single to Aranda with the infield drawn in, but he retired his final seven batters to complete another strong outing. He’s allowed one or zero earned runs in eight of his 11 starts this year.

The Twins, who have won 17 of their last 21 games, snapped Tampa Bay’s six-game winning streak. They handed Ryan a 1-0 lead before he took the mound. Trevor Larnach lined a leadoff double into the right-field corner on Rays starter Taj Bradley’s fourth pitch. Larnach moved up a base when Correa blooped a single into right field and scored on a medium-depth sacrifice fly to left fielder Chandler Simpson.

Larnach didn’t mind challenging Simpson’s arm, sliding past a tag attempt from catcher Ben Rortvedt after Simpson’s one-hop throw.

Kody Clemens opened the second inning with a solo homer to center, hitting the ball into a small opening next to the batter’s eye where an apparent camera operator was sitting with a laptop. With his dad, Roger, watching in the announced sellout crowd of 10,046, it was Clemens’ fifth homer in 50 at-bats since joining the Twins’ roster.

There are only two Twins players — Byron Buxton and Larnach — who have more homers than Clemens, who joined the team on April 26.

The Twins added a run in the sixth inning on an error. The Twins had two runners on base with one out after Jeffers drew a walk and Correa bounced a single through the left side of the infield. Brooks Lee hit a ground ball, a potential double play, but Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe overthrew the ball to second. Lowe’s throwing error allowed Jeffers to score once the ball deflected off shortstop José Caballero’s glove.

Correa, who said he put in “good work” with his swing in the last couple of days before he returned from the seven-day concussion injured list last week, produced his third three-hit game of the season with a one-out double in the eighth inning. Correa scored on a two-out single from Ty France, who leads the club with 30 RBIs.

After Caballero manufactured a run for the Rays in the seventh inning, hitting a one-out single off reliever Louie Varland, stealing two bases and scoring on a groundout, Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran combined to strike out four batters over the final two innings.