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

A lot went wrong in the Twins first games a run that saw them leave Atlanta days ago after being swept to put them a season-low eight games under A lot has gone right for the Twins since then They started it 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 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 a sparse more scoreless innings from their bullpen which has been stellar on this run a key defensive play and just enough offense A matchup between Ryan and Logan Webb had the expected 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 didn t show signs of physical strain He threw six strong innings striking out seven and allowing just two hits one a Heliot Ramos home run left the park 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 Griffin Jax followed Ryan into the championship throwing a scoreless seventh He made way for Cole Sands who gave up a double to lead off the eighth But it wouldn t come around to hurt the Twins thanks to catcher Christian V zquez who after Ramos advanced to third made an absolutely perfect throw to third baseman Royce Lewis to pick him off After receiving a high pitch from Sands V zquez fired the ball leading Lewis to the perfect position to nab Ramos An inning later Jhoan Duran induced a huge double play before getting Willy Adames to look at strike three to seal the win Worth noting Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected from the match in the sixth inning after objecting to a pitch that was called a ball on Carlos Correa firing off his hat after an animated argument with home plate umpire Adrian Johnson 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