Twins beat Giants, climb back to .500 with seventh-straight win

Not a lot went right in the Twins first games a run that was marked by costly errors countless by their pitchers and an offense that had yet to hit its stride The Twins left Atlanta days ago after being swept by the Braves a season-low eight games under Majority of everything has gone right since then The Twins started their turnaround by taking care of business against two of the worst teams in the American League winning five of six games on their last homestand A blip in Cleveland and Boston was followed by a seven-game winning streak that has conclusively pulled the Twins back to for the first time since Opening Day The Twins got there by beating the San Francisco Giants - on Saturday night at Target Field getting a strong performance from Joe Ryan who dealt with a violent illness earlier this week They also got a minimal more scoreless innings from their bullpen which has been stellar on this run a key defensive play from Christian V zquez and Royce Lewis and just enough offense I don t think anyone in our clubhouse is thinking about our record noted manager Rocco Baldelli who was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing balls and strikes and punctuated his ejection with a hat toss I think our guys are thinking about playing good I ve been very pleased with what I ve been seeing all over the place everywhere you look And Saturday provided another good example of that A matchup between Ryan and Logan Webb had the anticipated of a pitchers duel and the two starters didn t disappoint Ryan whose start was pushed back from Thursday to Saturday after he vomited an estimated - times on Monday threw six strong innings striking out seven and allowing just two hits One hit a Heliot Ramos home run left the park giving the Giants - a brief lead in the second He did all that while feeling physically horrible noting that he felt like he was still feeling really worn down There was just too plenty of bad things that I didn t really like and honestly I didn t know where the ball was going much Ryan declared But yeah at times it went where I required it to which was nice And yet he didn t issue a walk keeping his unit in the meeting something which has been consistent from Twins starters during this seven-game run On the other side Webb was just as tough on the Twins - the only difference being that the one pitch he threw that left the park was a two-run home run rather than a solo shot Trevor Larnach s sixth home run of the season which came in the third inning was the only offense the Twins would muster on the day And yet it was enough on another day with a solid effort from the squad s pitching staff Griffin Jax followed Ryan into the contest throwing a scoreless seventh He made way for Cole Sands who gave up a double to lead off the eighth It wouldn t come around to hurt the Twins though thanks to V zquez who with Ramos on third made an absolutely perfect throw to Lewis to pick him off After receiving a high pitch from Sands V zquez leapt up and fired the ball leading Lewis into position to lay a tag down on Ramos He knows I like to throw and he s invariably ready V zquez revealed With a man on third and one out they re apparently going with the contact play and were trying to get the run there and we did it An inning later Jhoan Duran induced a key double play fielding a ball hit back to him before getting Willy Adames to look at strike three to seal the seventh straight win and bring the Twins back to even on the year We re clicking Everybody V zquez announced Pitching and everybody s hitting in big moments like Larnach in current times Every night it s a different guy and I think that s very central on a winning organization Related Articles Twins Danny Coulombe off to strong start You can t do it much better Chris Paddack dominant as Twins beat Giants for sixth-straight win Twins Joe Ryan set for start after intense bout of illness earlier in week Joe Ryan s illness shuffles Twins rotation plans Twins pull ahead late with Brooks Lee s big hit sweep Orioles