Ryan knows he can be even better.
Minnesota Twins right-hander Joe Ryan picked up the win on Monday night against the Chicago White Sox, but he was far from satisfied with how he got there.
Ryan went six innings, gave up four earned runs on eight hits, and struck out nine in the Twins' 9-6 victory at Target Field.
The final score looked comfortable, but Ryan felt like he left innings on the table by moving away from the approach that has worked for him all year long.
"I don't feel like I gave enough length," Ryan said after the game. "There are some things that could have gone differently — trying to mix things up when we didn't need to, adding things in that we haven't done all year. Just kind of changing the plan at times, and it limits the innings. I was probably in a spot to go a couple more innings. Certain things didn't go the way we probably should have stuck to. It happens."
That type of honesty is part of what makes Ryan so valuable to this Twins team right now.
Even on a night where the offense piled up nine runs and the bullpen held on, he pointed the finger at himself and held himself to a standard higher than the box score suggested.
Ryan Has Been Pitching at an Elite Level
The frustration makes a lot more sense when looking at the level Ryan had been pitching at before Monday.
He carried a 3.02 ERA with 61 strikeouts and only 14 walks through 56.2 innings across his first 11 starts of the season and had rattled off four straight quality starts heading into this one.
Monday's outing broke that run since four earned runs in six innings falls just short of the quality start mark, and Ryan could tell the difference.
The 29-year-old has been Minnesota's most dependable starter by a wide margin all season.
He earned the Opening Day nod against the Orioles back in March after a career year in 2025, when he made his first All-Star team and went 13-10 with a 3.42 ERA and 194 strikeouts in 30 starts.
That same version of Ryan has largely shown up again in 2026, and the Twins cannot afford for it to go anywhere.
Where Minnesota Stands
The Twins sit at 28-33, third in the AL Central and six games behind the Cleveland Guardians.
Monday's win snapped a five-game losing streak, but the margin for error is razor-thin for a club still trying to stay in the playoff picture.
With Bailey Ober recently hitting the injured list with elbow inflammation, the rotation is thinner than it was a week ago and the pressure on Ryan to eat innings just got a whole lot heavier.
If Minnesota is going to stay within striking distance, it needs Joe Ryan pitching deep into games and keeping the damage to a minimum.
He seems to understand that better than anyone.
That is exactly why a win still left him wanting more.
