Twins hang on to beat Blue Jays 3-2 after Joe Ryan goes seven innings

TORONTO – It had been nearly 11 months since Joe Ryan recorded a seventh-inning out. But one batter into Friday’s game, a 3-2 victory for Ryan and the Twins at Rogers Centre, he thought it was possible.

That’s the power of music.

“Their leadoff hitter [Davis Schneider] walked out to ‘The Stroke’ by Billy Squier,” Ryan explained after holding Toronto to six hits — a solo home run and five singles — in his longest start since last June 22. “There’s a Randy Johnson strikeout highlight [video] that I probably watched too many times growing up, and part of it is to ‘The Stroke.’ So I was thinking, I’ve got to strike this guy out. And I did.”

From there, Ryan cruised, retiring the final nine hitters he faced to protect a one-run lead built around the only four hits Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi gave up in eight dominating innings. The Twins looked overmatched by the lefthander, going out in order six times against Kikuchi. Yet they still somehow improved to 7-3 when facing a lefthanded starter this season, thanks to one of the shortest home runs of Carlos Santana’s career.

Santana reached out for a 1-2 Kikuchi fastball just off the plate in the fifth inning, breaking a 1-1 tie with an opposite-field line drive that just carried into the right-field seats, a homer measured at 342 feet. Only twice before in Santana’s 15-year career had he hit a home run that traveled such a short distance.

“He shot that ball hard,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We were fairly certain that it was either gone or maybe a double off the wall. That’s a great swing.”

Santana nearly gave the lead right back in the ninth inning, after Griffin Jax gave up a two-out single to Bo Bichette, then walked Cavan Biggio. Isiah Kiner-Falefa then hit a ground ball toward Santana, but the first baseman, screened by Biggio running past, missed the ball, allowing Bichette to score.

Jax recovered, though, getting Ernie Clement to hit a ball back at him. The ball bounced off Jax’s rear end and bounced to Santana, who touched first base to put a dramatic end on the game.

And it made a winner of Ryan, who three times allowed a leadoff hit, but only once — when Kiner-Falefa, a Twin for about 24 hours in spring training 2022, lifted a fly ball that carried into the Blue Jays bullpen — could Toronto put a run on the scoreboard against the starter.

“That guy, man. I mean, I’ll tip my cap again,” Ryan said of Kiner-Falefa, who is now 3-for-5 with two homers against his brief teammate. “Afterwards, I was like, ‘Damn, he did the same to me in New York, too. There are certain guys that are just — they see it different. I might have to bring out the curveball or something.”

BOXSCORE: Twins 3, Toronto 2

Or maybe Ryan could suggest a new walk-up song for him.

The Twins scored in the first inning when Carlos Correa, Willi Castro and Jose Miranda each singled with one out, the latter driving in the game’s first run. But Castro was thrown out at home attempting a double steal to end the inning.

Kikuchi went on to retire 21 of the next 22 Twins hitters he faced, all but Santana’s home run. Only when righthander Nate Pearson relieved him in the ninth could the Twins score again, with Correa hitting a one-out double and scoring on Max Kepler’s pinch-hit single.

Ryan wasn’t quite as spotless as Kikuchi, but he was just as effective, earning his second victory of the season by giving up a season-low one run. He threw 104 pitches in completing seven innings, his longest outing since his nine-inning shutout of the Red Sox last June 22 at Target Field.