Twins lose to Guardians 2-0, get only one hit as wimpy offense continues

CLEVELAND – The Twins' record-setting home run streak came to an end Sunday. Not coincidentally, so did their ability to score.

Cleveland righthander Cal Quantrill didn't give up a hit until Alex Kirilloff lined a single to right field with two out in the seventh inning, and the Twins never got another one, suffering a 2-0 shutout to the Guardians at Progressive Field that wrapped up a disappointing 2-4 road trip against AL Central rivals.

"Winning a couple more games would have been nice," said Joe Ryan, who normally has no trouble picking up wins. But after opening the season with five victories in as many starts and extending his streak to nine consecutive wins when he starts, Ryan received a no-decision in Tuesday's 10-inning loss to the White Sox, then suffered his first loss since last Sept. 7 on Sunday, despite pitching effectively in five of his six innings.

The trip "was pretty grindy," Ryan added. "We hit a lot of balls hard," but had little to show for it.

The Twins managed only five runs against Cleveland in the three-game series, and all of them were scored on home runs, extending their franchise-record run of games with a homer to 18 with two Saturday. But nobody came close to the seats Sunday against Quantrill, James Karinchak or Emmanuel Clase, so nobody came close to scoring a run, either.

Wait, that's not quite true. Quantrill, who only threw 58 strikes during his 95-pitch day, lost his command briefly in the second inning, glancing a pitch off Byron Buxton's hand and then walking Kirilloff and Joey Gallo. But for the second time on this trip, the Twins squandered a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity, with Jose Miranda popping the ball up and Nick Gordon grounding into an inning-ending double play.

"We've got to do better. We've got to swing at better pitches. We've got to find a way to find the barrel" of the bat, manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Really, all you're looking to do is just push the ball that way and hit it somewhere on the barrel. We didn't do it when we needed to."

And Quantrill was all but perfect after that, retiring 16 consecutive hitters before Kirilloff's lone hit, triggering a warm standing ovation from the announced crowd of 17,477.

"Yeah, we didn't swing the bats real well today," Baldelli said, hinting that the one-hitter was as much a symptom of his hitters' weeklong slump as Cleveland's superior pitching. Quantrill "pitched pretty well. He was all around the zone and we offered at pitches that probably weren't good pitches to swing at. There was a lot of contact," and only four strikeouts in his seven innings, one of them due to a pitch clock violation.

The slump is certainly real. The Twins managed only 28 hits over 58 innings against the White Sox and Guardians over the week, and they scored only 18 runs. They recorded a hit in only 18 of those 58 innings, and scored in just 10. They managed to draw as many walks, 28, as hits, but did little with them.

Miranda was 2-for-21 on the trip, and Gallo 0-for-15, part of an 0-for-23 stretch back to April 29, albeit with six walks during that span.

The Twins have a .220 team batting average, the lowest in MLB, and have struck out more than any other team in the American League.

"Everyone is trying really hard to get it done, and they're kind of expanding [the strike zone] and getting outside of themselves a little bit because of it," hitting coach David Popkins said. "Baseball is the one sport where the harder you try, it doesn't really help you. It's actually better to relax and keep playing the game and eventually everything works out."

Especially with such good pitching. The loss aside, Ryan continued the Twins' stretch of strong starting pitching — the rotation combined for a 2.78 ERA over the weeklong trip, and the bullpen was even better, posting a 2.45 ERA in 18⅓ mostly high-intensity innings.

Ryan gave up four first-inning singles that resulted in the two runs, but he didn't give up another run in his six-inning start. Steven Kwan and Myles Straw led off the game with ground-ball singles, José Ramirez hit a smash past Kirilloff at first for a run-scoring hit and Josh Bell singled Straw home with one out.

"Ground balls are usually a good thing, but pop flies are technically better. Usually, I get pop flies," Ryan said. "Good hitters. They hit a couple singles. Yeah."