Joe Ryan starts Twins toward 2-1 victory over Pirates, Paul Skenes

Phil Miller, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jul 11, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — Kody Clemens, an infielder whose family tree suggests he knows something about intimidating pitchers, downplayed the intimidation factor before the Twins faced Pirates All-Star Paul Skenes on Friday.

“Baseball’s hard, you know,” said Clemens, the son of a seven-time Cy Young winner. “He might leave some over the middle today.”

He did. A classic baseball mistake, too — the hanging curveball.

Trevor Larnach was the recipient of the defenseless middle-of-the-plate breaking pitch, a mere 84 mph from the ace whose fastball regularly hit 98. Larnach cranked a line drive 106 mph, and watched it land in the flower pots atop the wall in right field.

The two-run blast, Larnach’s 12th of the season, spoiled Skenes’ otherwise-as-advertised excellence and delivered the Twins’ fifth win in seven games, 2-1 at a packed Target Field.

Joe Ryan, who will also be in the opposite dugout from Skenes next Tuesday at the All-Star Game in Atlanta, outpitched last year’s NL Rookie of the Year, an outcome that seemed unlikely three innings in. Ryan allowed three hits and two walks during those innings, while Skenes mowed down all nine Twins hitters he faced.

But Ryan, who relished the matchup against Skenes, gave up only one run in his five-inning start and earned his ninth win of the season.

This being the Twins, however, the victory in such a highly anticipated pitching matchup came with some bad news, too. In the seventh inning, Pirates outfielder Tommy Pham lined a single to right field, where DeShawn Keirsey Jr. cut it off in a hurry. Pham tried to stretch the play to a double anyway but slid into Carlos Correa’s tag at second base.

Trouble is, he slid into Correa’s leg, too, and turned his right ankle. That’s the ankle that Correa shattered during a minor league game in 2014, the same one that caused the Giants and Mets to back off of their long-term contract offers to the shortstop during the winter of 2022-23. The one that cost him $150 million.

Twins trainers rushed to where Correa was lying and eventually helped him hobble off to the dugout. The Twins soon announced that Correa had suffered a mild sprain, so perhaps their luck with health will equal their luck with hanging curveballs.

Five relief pitchers finished off the Pirates after Ryan’s departure, with Jhoan Duran striking out Isiah Kiner-Falefa — the player, coincidentally, that the Twins traded away once they signed Correa to his first contract here — to end the game.