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A day after he was selected to his second consecutive all-star game, Joe Ryan again proved himself worthy of the honor.
The Twins ace blanked the Yankees for seven frames Sunday, keying Minnesota’s 6-1 victory in New York. Ryan allowed just three hits, while walking one and striking out nine.
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The Yankees didn’t have a runner reach second base until there were two outs in the seventh inning, and even that required an infield single and walk. Ryan then struck out Amed Rosario to end the “threat,” as well as his day.
The Yankees’ lone run came on a groundout in the final frame.
New York (49-40) has now lost nine of its last 10 games. The Twins (44-47), meanwhile, are moving in the entirely opposite direction. This weekend’s series victory was Minnesota’s first at Yankee Stadium since 2014 and sixth in its last seven series overall.
“For me, that means a lot. This is a historic franchise, a winning franhicse,” Twins infielder Royce Lewis said of the Yankees in his postgame, on-field television interview with NBC Sports. “To come in and beat them on their turf is impressive.”
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The Twins are just four games back of the AL Central lead heading into a pivotal six-game homestand leading into the break. That opens Tuesday night with the first of three games against Cleveland.
The Twins offense has re-discovered its stride. Sunday marked Minnesota’s third six-plus run output in its last four games. A day after talliying 11 hits, the Twins one upped themselves with 12 in the series rubber match.
One of those belonged to Byron Buxton, who reached first on an infield single in the first inning. But Buxton then exited the game after re-aggravating a hip injury while attempting to steal second.
Others picked up the slack in his absence. Austin Martin went 2 for 3 with a pair of walks, Lewis had two hits and two RBI and Brooks Lee had a trio of base knocks.
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“We’re feeding off each other,” Lewis said. “Kody Clemens decided to be Barry Bonds this weekend, so we were feeding off that guy. … Josh Bell going off. Everyone was doing their thing this weekend. It was fun.”
Ryan’s standout showing came after a pair of rocky performances in his past two outings, in which he surrendered four runs in a loss to the Dodgers and was tagged for six runs across just four frames against the Astros.
But it’s hard to keep a good pitcher down for long. Seventy-three of Ryan’s 106 pitches on Sunday were strikes. Twins writer Aaron Gleeman reported on his Twitter page that Ryan is the first Minnesota pitcher to throw seven-plus shutout innings at Yankee Stadium since Johan Santana did so in 2005.
“It’s going to be seven innings, 10 punchies (with him),” Lewis said. “That’s the kind of guy that we expect and that we get, because he puts those expectations on himself. He’s that good, and he deserves all the all-star selections.”
