MINNEAPOLIS — The 19,005 announced fans at Target Field on Tuesday booed as Jovani Moran exited the bullpen to take the mound in the eighth inning.
To be fair to them, Joe Ryan was throwing a no-hitter at that point. But to be fair to Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, Ryan was on 106 pitches already thanks to numerous foul-offs.
In the end, there was no no-no in store, as Moran let in two walks, two hits and three runs in the top of the ninth. But the Twins still won 6-3 against the Royals, at least.
It would have been the Twins' eighth in team history and the first involving more than one pitcher. The last Twins' no-hitter belonged to Francisco Liriano in a 1-0 victory against the White Sox on May 3, 2011.
There was a combined no-hitter from the Astros earlier this season on June 25, the third no-hitter thrown in 2022, the others being a combined from the Mets in April and the Angels' Reid Detmers in May.
Ryan threw 68% strikes during his seven innings, striking out nine. That strikeout total matched a season-high he has thrown twice before this season. The rookie's career-high came last season when he tallied 11.
The 26-year-old gave up two walks, though one was to his first batter of the night. But the Bay Area native – who came to the Twins in a deadline trade last season from the Tampa Bay Rays – didn't let that come back to haunt him, nabbing the next three outs.
Moran came in for the final two innings and had a one-two-three eighth with two strikeouts. He struck out his first batter in the ninth, too, but walked the next two hitters. Bobby Witt Jr., then banged a RBI double before Sebastian Rivero's RBI single. Vinnie Pasquantino's sacrifice fly was the final blow.
Offensively, the Twins put up at least one hit in the first six innings and managed 11 total. And that turned into run support in the third, thanks to three-consecutive hits from Gilberto Celestino, Luis Arraez and Carlos Correa. Correa's was an RBI double that broke the deadlock. Jose Miranda also drove in a run on his single, though the Twins' poor baserunning put Correa out at home by a wide margin.
Correa was again part of the scoring in the fifth inning after Arraez' base hit. The Puerto Rican smacked a two-run homer to put the Twins up 5-0. And Gio Urshela followed suit in the sixth inning, delivering a leadoff homer to make it six runs to none.
The victory helped the Twins to a 70-70 record, putting them back at .500 after a crushing sweep at home to Cleveland this past weekend. Cleveland still leads the American League Central, up five games on the Twins, while the White Sox are in third.
The Royals dropped to 57-85, in distant fourth in the division. It would have been just the third time the Royals have had a no-hitter pitched against them. The most recent occurence was May 19, 2008, against Jon Lester of the Red Sox in a 7-0 loss. The other was from Nolan Ryan of the California Angels on May 15, 1973.
