Joe Ryan throws not-so-subtle shade at Twins' lackluster offense

Joe Ryan continued a recent run of strong outings from Twins starting pitchers during Monday night's game against the Mets. He allowed just one run and struck out eight batters over five innings. But Minnesota's offense remained lifeless and the bullpen instantly coughed up four runs in the two innings after Ryan's departure in a 5-1 loss at a largely empty Target Field.

After the game, Ryan matter-of-factly expressed some frustration with the team's struggling bats, which didn't give him much time to rest between innings.

"It would be nice to have a little bit more time between innings," he said, via the Minnesota Star Tribune's Bobby Nightengale. “I turned around and got my water bottle and I was running back out there real quick. Like a minute or two would be nice. (Mets starter Clay Holmes) pitched the ball really well."

Despite pitching effectively, Ryan had a hard time generating quick outs. He needed 27 pitches to get through a scoreless first inning where he allowed a double and a walk. Then the Twins' offense went out and struck out three times on 12 pitches against Holmes in the bottom half of the first, putting Ryan right back out there. And that wasn't the only time it happened. After a 22-pitch inning from Ryan in the third, the Twins went down in order on 11 pitches.

He probably wasn't intentionally throwing shade at his teammates, but Ryan's not-so-subtle comment reflects some understandable irritation with the way things have gone lately. He was also likely frustrated with himself after an elevated pitch count (101) kept him from going deeper into the game.

Here's a stat that's somewhat hard to believe: Over the last seven games, Twins starting pitchers have combined to allow four earned runs in 37.1 innings pitched. That's a 0.96 ERA. During that span, the Twins have gone 2-5.

How does that happen? For one, the Twins' offense scored two runs or fewer in four of those games. The team also committed ten errors in those seven games, and the bullpen has been a mess. Four of those ten errors came on throws by Twins relievers, including two (by Justin Topa and Jorge Alcala) on Monday night.

The Twins' latest loss dropped them to 5-12, matching the worst start in franchise history. They've scored two or fewer runs in nine of 17 games, second-most in baseball behind the Colorado Rockies. As a team, they're hitting .203 with a .601 OPS.

And Monday's announced crowd of 10,240 was the smallest in Target Field history if you exclude the 2020 season (no fans) and COVID-affected crowds in April and May 2021. Those two seasons aside, you have to go back to 2002 to find a smaller announced crowd for a Twins home game. Plus, in reality, there were far fewer than 10K fans in attendance on Monday, especially in the later innings.

It's a bleak situation right now for the Twins. The starting rotation has done its job over the last week, but that group needs some help from the lineup and bullpen if things are going to turn around.

Twins news, rumors and analysis