Coming off a Grade 2 shoulder strain that knocked him out for most of the last two months of 2024, Joe Ryan has returned to pitch a career-high 166 innings this season. His 1.04 WHIP is the second-best of his career, and if he pitches in the season-ending series in Philadelphia next weekend, he’ll set a career high with 30 starts.

But after another rough September start on Saturday — a 6-0 loss to Cleveland at Target Field — the Twins’ right-hander lamented how he has so far finished his season.

“I wish I could have been a little bit smoother the last couple, and just thrown a couple more innings, too,” Ryan said. “My role is to take some innings off the bullpen there, and I don’t feel like I’ve done a really good job of that lately.”

Jose Ramirez, Bo Naylor and George Valera — his first in the majors — all homered off Ryan to give the Guardians a 3-0 lead after two innings, and Daniel Schneeman added a fourth in a two-run fifth inning as the Guardians beat the Twins 6-0 in an official makeup of a May 20 rainout, the first of two victories at Target Field on Saturday.

In 18 combined innings, the Guardians peppered Twins pitchers for a combined 19 hits, nine of them in the nightcap, and outscored the Twins 14-0. They won the second game 8-0 on the strength of a six-run fifth inning against starter Bailey Ober.

Cleveland has won 10 in a row, and 15 of 16 since Sept. 5, to pull within one game of first-place Detroit in the American League Central.

In the opener, Ryan (13-9) allowed six of the Guardians’ 10 hits, walked two and struck out five.

Cleveland starter Slade Cecconi (7-6) pitched seven innings and allowed only three Twins batters to reach base, including Austin Martin, whose first-inning line drive into center extended his hitting streak to eight games.

Luke Keaschall hit a leadoff double in the second inning but was stranded at third. Ryan Fitzgerald drew a two-out walk in the fifth inning, but Cecconi struck out the side.

Left-hander Kolby Allard finished the game for Cleveland with a pair of scoreless innings as the Twins lost for the eighth time in 10 games.

After Schneeman’s homer, Ryan surrendered a double by Brayan Rocchio, who advanced to third on a single by Steven Kwan, then scored on a throwing error by catcher Jhonny Pereda when Kwan stole second.

Ryan, 29, said in retrospect, he regrets starting a Sept. 6 game at Kansas City while was struggling with an illness. He lasted two innings in an 11-2 loss, allowing five earned runs on four hits and four walks.

“Probably not a good call, just with where I was dehydration-wise and stuff,” he said Saturday. “That was pretty annoying, just being sick out there; I think that kind of lingered, and I did some things I probably shouldn’t have done there — just kind of battling back from that.”

Since that loss in Kansas City, Ryan has gone seven days between starts but fell to 0-2 with a 9.00 earned-run average in September.

“But lessons learned,” he said. “Obviously, we were out of (contention), and I’ve just got to make notes for years going forward and see what I can do a little differently to be a little more consistent.”

Briefly

Ramirez’s two-out homer in the first inning was his 30th of the season. With 40 stolen bases so far this season, he became the third Cleveland player with three 30-30 seasons. … Martin has a career-best 16-game on-base streak. He was hitting .301 after the first game of Saturday’s double-header. … In the originally scheduled night game, left-hander Logan Allen pitched a career-high eight innings and held the Twins to four hits and a walk while fanning eight.

Originally Published: September 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM CDT