Joe Ryan pitches seven scoreless innings as Twins snap three-game skid

KANSAS CITY Mo Right-hander Joe Ryan gave the Minnesota Twins just what they needed a dominant starting pitching performance Twins hitters joined in generating enough offense and Minnesota s bullpen finished off the Kansas City Royals in a - win Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium Ryan allowed two hits and struck out four over seven scoreless innings Ryan - filled the zone with strikes on pitches and lowered his ERA to in three starts this season Griffin Jax after finding trouble of all kinds in his previous outings allowed a hard single in the eighth inning but got three outs Jhoan Duran walked Bobby Witt with two outs in the ninth before Vinnie Pasquantino grounded to first for the last out Matt Wallner and Ty France hit solo home runs the first of the season for both and the Twins got RBI singles from Edouard Julien and France The Twins stopped a three-game losing streak and improved to - overall Twins starting pitchers came in tied for th in innings pitched averaging innings per outing but Ryan came in ready for more Ryan himself hadn t gone longer than five innings in his first two starts Royals right-hander Seth Lugo - kept the Twins off the scoreboard until two outs in the fourth when Julien drove in a run with a single to right With Carlos Correa heading home it looked like Royals outfielder Hunter Renfroe had a play at the plate But the trailing runner Trevor Larnach was between second base and third and Renfroe threw that way letting Correa sum Larnach was tagged out in a rundown After an intentional walk to Larnach with two outs in the sixth France detected a hole on the right side for an opposite-field RBI single to make it - Wallner hit a homer to right that just got out in the eighth and France connected into the Twins bullpen for another solo shot in the ninth The Twins best defensive play happened in the fourth Bobby Witt went the other way for a double to right and one out later Salvador Perez hit a deep fly to center Witt had tried to steal third on the pitch and slid into third He had too far to return to second once Harrison Bader caught the ball Bader made a perfect throw to an outstretched Julien just nipping Witt at the bag Related Articles Twins starter Pablo L pez has strained hamstring Lopez hurt Twins falls to Royals again Twins Pablo Lopez leaves start with right hamstring tightness Twins Summary Vazquez takes responsibility for manager s ejection Monday Twins fall flat at Kansas City