Joe Ryan was nearly perfect for most of the afternoon but Royce Lewis was involved in a frightening collision in the eighth inning as the Twins lost 2-1 in Sunday’s season finale with the Cleveland Guardians.
Ryan faced the minimum number of batters through the sixth inning, allowing just two hits to the Guardians with four strikeouts. But a two-out walk to Jose RamĂrez haunted the Twins ace as Josh Naylor gave Cleveland the lead with an RBI double to right field.
Caleb Thielbar relieved Joe Ryan in his return from an oblique injury but served up a triple to Chris Giménez before getting out of the inning down 2-0.
While Ryan was great, Triston McKenzie was just as good for Cleveland, striking out 10 batters while limiting the Twins to one hit over five innings.
The Twins finally got on the board with Willi Castro’s home run in the top of the eighth inning but that’s where Lewis was involved in a scary collision with Cleveland first baseman Gabriel Arias.
Royce Lewis flipped over the first baseman and landed on his head/face pic.twitter.com/0KvTL3uxi1
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) June 4, 2023
Lewis was down for several moments before getting up and walking off on his own power. and while he was not officially taken out of the game he wouldn’t see the field again as the team’s designated hitter.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after the game that Lewis was only shaken up with some abrasions but there are no acute concerns and no concussion after the play.
The Twins still found a way to rally in the ninth inning, placing runners on first and third with two outs but Emmanuel Castro got Castro to strike out looking for the Twins’ 16th strikeout of the afternoon to end the game.
After splitting the four-game series with the Guardians, the Twins are 31-29 and will open a three-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night. Louie Varland (3-1, 3.51 ERA) will get the start against Tampa’s Zach Eflin (7-1, 3.30 ERA)
