Twins All-Star Joe Ryan matches MLB record, giving up six homers in blowout loss to Guardians

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jul 20, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The Minnesota Twins have played 10,398 games in team history, and Joe Ryan picked Monday to become the club’s first pitcher to give up six home runs in a game.

Talk about poor timing.

Beginning a four-game series against the Cleveland Guardians, one of the two teams the Twins are chasing in the American League Central standings with two weeks remaining until the trade deadline, Ryan delivered his worst start of the season in a 13-4 loss at Progressive Field.

The Twins, after they climbed to a .500 record on Friday, have lost three consecutive games and slid 2 1/2 games back in the wild-card race. They were forced to use backup catcher Alex Jackson to pitch the eighth inning in Monday’s blowout.

Ryan, making his first start since pitching a scoreless inning in the All-Star Game last week, became the 12th pitcher in MLB history to give up a record six homers in a game.

Just as stunning, it came against a Guardians offense that ranked last in the AL in home runs. Bryan Rocchio and Rhys Hoskins hit back-to-back homers with two outs in the first inning. Rookie Petey Halpin and Travis Bazzana took Ryan deep in the second inning. Hoskins homered again in the third, and Halpin hit his second career homer in the fourth.

Cleveland, which had 94 homers in 100 games entering Monday, added a seventh homer when Patrick Bailey hit a solo shot off Woo-Suk Go in the seventh inning.

Ryan gave up eight runs on a career-high 10 hits over four innings. Three of the six homers came on Ryan’s four-seam fastball. He also yielded home runs on his sweeper, splitter and sinker.

During the Twins’ three-game losing streak, starters Taj Bradley, Zebby Matthews and Ryan gave up a combined 21 earned runs and 26 hits over 12 innings. Including Sunday’s 10-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs, the Twins allowed at least 10 runs in consecutive games for the first time this year.

Ryan nearly escaped the first inning Monday without giving up a run. Second baseman Kody Clemens bobbled a grounder from Chase DeLauter, spoiling a potential inning-ending double play. Within the next five pitches, the Guardians had a 3-0 lead after homers from Rocchio and Hoskins.

The Twins responded with two runs in the second inning after Brooks Lee hit an RBI triple that bounced past DeLauter in right field, and Lee scored on a sacrifice fly.

A chance for Ryan to reset? Not quite.

Halpin, who had zero career homers in 73 at-bats, hit a two-run homer in the second inning and Bazzana followed with a two-out, two-strike homer. Hoskins blasted the first pitch of the third inning for his 11th home run of the season and Halpin opened the fourth inning with a homer to center.

Ryan spent his two days in Philadelphia last week picking the minds of fellow All-Star pitchers and meeting Barry Bonds, one of his favorite players while growing up in the Bay Area. Then he joined a dubious list of a dozen pitchers who gave up six homers in a game, a group that includes knuckleballers Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey along with five instances in games from 1930-40.

Ryan had allowed 10 homers in 110 1/3 innings, entering Monday, including two over his previous five starts.

It was the first time in Cleveland’s franchise history that it produced six home runs in the game’s first four innings.

____