KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Kauffman Stadium sat mostly empty Tuesday amid a scheduled off day during the three-game series between the Twins and Kansas City Royals. As many MLB teams do the day after the home opener, the Royals left the schedule blank in case they needed to re-schedule a rainout.<\/p>\n
Good for the Royals, less so for the Twins (who lost 3-1) \u2014 the weather was fine for Opening Day at the K.<\/p>\n
A day later, a ballpark with no game was no matter for Twins right-hander Joe Ryan, who used his time to prepare.<\/p>\n
His next start comes when the series resumes Wednesday night. Working on your day off is one way Major League Baseball players live differently than other folks. Instead of using the open time to catch up on tasks he had been putting off, or just taking it easy, Ryan went through his day-before routine. It\u2019s not usually a lot of full-speed throwing, but there\u2019s stretching, cardio and other exercises pitchers use to bridge their starts. It will have been six days since Ryan threw 5 1\/3 innings against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on Opening Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to be here anyway,\u201d Ryan told the Pioneer Press. \u201cThere are benefits sometimes to being a starting pitcher, but there\u2019s also the other side: You come in on your off days. If you have a bullpen day, or you have to stay in your routine the day before, you go to the ballpark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes, the schedule works out in different ways. Ryan said he caught a break after his first start, again because of the open date that followed Baltimore\u2019s home opener. He and his father, Kurt Ryan, did some sightseeing in the nation\u2019s capital, about 45 miles away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to walk around and explore D.C. with my dad,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cSo I\u2019ll take that day as my off day, and then [Tuesday] is a working\u00a0off day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan said he has visited Washington before, but his dad, who helped to raise the Ryan family in Marin County, Calif., was checking it out for the first time.<\/p>\n
Ryan said the pair \u201cwalked about 10 miles and just kind of explored,\u201d which is in Kurt Ryan\u2019s wheelhouse. He is said to be an ultra-marathon runner who frequently took his family, including Joe, on long hikes out west.<\/p>\n
Together again in D.C., the Ryans toured the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. Botanical Garden, the Air and Space Museum and the Library of Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Library of Congress, that was gorgeous,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
The visit turned somber and poignant along the National Mall. There, the Ryans stopped at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where 58,318 names of Americans who gave their life are inscribed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found the name of his childhood neighbor on the wall,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
It was a memorable time for the Ryans to talk, catch up and learn something.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see where the nation has come from, the history that we\u2019ve preserved, I\u2019m glad we got a chance to do it,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
Ryan now has a chance to help get the Twins back on the right path after they\u2019ve dropped three of their first four games in 2026. Most of the club\u2019s issues have come at the plate. They\u2019re averaging three runs per game, which puts them in the lower third in the league. Only four teams have fewer hits with runners in scoring position (6-for-27) than the Twins.<\/p>\n
The Royals scheduled left-hander Noah Cameron on Wednesday, the second of three lefty starters the Twins can expect in the series. Cole Ragans is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in the finale.<\/p>\n
Not ideal, especially for a team set up like the Twins with so many key lefty hitters. But as slugger Matt Wallner said: Getting lefties back-to-back-to-back \u201cis better than going two weeks without facing any.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan pitched well in his first start, striking out seven, allowing just one hit and recording 16 outs. Starting pitching hasn\u2019t been a problem for the Twins so far, except for Bailey Ober\u2019s outing. But manager Derek Shelton probably wants his starters to go deeper this turn.<\/p>\n
Starting with Ryan, who could take a bit more of a hike against the Royals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Kauffman Stadium sat mostly empty Tuesday amid a scheduled off day during the three-game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,1455,822,60,3190,4,185,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-655397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-joe-ryan","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-twins","12":"tag-minnesotatwins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116326336214725143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}