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Team USA played its first game of pool play Friday morning, and newly-acquired Twins prospect Joe Ryan was on the mound. See how he did here. Baseball made its return to the Olympics as part of this year’s schedule, after not being a part of the last two Summer Olympics. With active Major Leaguers obviously not allowed to play, Team USA’s roster is comprised mostly of talented minor league prospects, with Joe Ryan, who was acquired by the Twins in the Nelson Cruz trade, among them. In game one of pool play, which was played early Friday morning here in the United States, Team USA gave the ball to Joe Ryan to go up against Israel. Ryan did not disappoint in his Olympic debut, as he gave up just one run on five hits, with five strikeouts and zero walks over six innings of work. This performance helped lead Team USA to an 8-1 victory. Joe Ryan got his start going by getting Ian Kinsler to flyout to center field to begin the bottom of the first. Then, after a Ty Kelly double, Ryan got former Twin Danny Valencia to flyout for the second out of the inning. Ryan gave up another single, but Kelly only made it to third on the play. This was big, as Joe Ryan got Ryan Lavarnway to ground into a forceout to get out of the inning with no harm done. The second and third innings for Ryan were much smoother, as he struck out the side in order in the second, and then got Israel to go down 1-2-3 in the third, which included striking out Ian Kinsler for the second out of the inning. The lone run that Joe Ryan gave up was on a Danny Valencia leadoff home run in the bottom of the 4th. Ryan would give up a couple of one out singles later in the inning to Ryan Lavarnway and Nick Rickles, but would get out of the inning with no more runs allowed. After his lone hiccup in the fourth, Joe Ryan cruised the rest of the way, as he set Isreal down 1-2-3 in both the fifth and sixth innings, before he was relieved to begin the seventh. In total, four of the six innings Ryan pitched were 1-2-3 innings. Team USA is back in action on Saturday morning at 5 a.m. (central time) to take on South Korea in their second, and final, game of pool play before bracket play begins on Sunday. If they win, they will automatically advance to round two on Monday, but if they lose they will need to play in round one on Sunday. If Team USA advances far enough, Joe Ryan could be available to pitch in either a Semifinal game next week Wednesday or Thursday, or he could pitch in a potential medal game next Saturday. View full article

After seeing the Minnesota Twins hold off USA Baseball 3-2 on Wednesday, a dangerous thought for any Minnesota sports fan crept into my head: these guys might not suck. The Twins are projected to improve more than any other team, but given last season, that’s not saying much. Many of the 14 more games the Twins are expected to win are due to an expected improvement in defensive runs saved. The addition of Jason Castro has a lot to do with it. He came through in an RBI situation in the second inning and coaxed two scoreless innings out of Trevor May after he surrendered three consecutive hits and two runs to open the game. May, nor any Twins pitcher, saw a Spring Training lineup, either. Craig Breslow managed to strand the tying and go-ahead runs at second and third in the ninth by striking out Christian Yelich, and getting Daniel Murphy and Alex Bregman to groundout. Those are no slouches. Byron Buxton made another run-saving catch, Max Kepler roped another double, and it was off Andrew Miller! The Twins’ biggest offseason addition had the game’s biggest hit. Granted, it came off Twins pitcher Drew Rucinski, who was one of many players on loan to USA Baseball prior to the World Baseball Classic. In fact, the only Twin who looked out of place was Danny Santana, who had a throwing error at shortstop (while Nick Gordon played second base?), and misplayed a foul popup that he really should have yielded to the left fielder. He also struck out in his only at-bat, but he is dealing with the death of his mother. Twins relievers were perfect. Matt Belisle got Jonathan Lucroy to ground into a big double play in the sixth. He then snuck some heat by Giancarlo Stanton of all people. Ryan Pressly struck out Daniel Murphy! I know what you’re thinking: it’s Spring Training. These hitters don’t have their timing. But there was a moment I felt a joy that most fans would find depressing. The moment I felt these guys might not suck was when Nick Gordon doubled to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Twins didn’t strand him. I know that’s a low bar, but Twins fans have low bars. Brian Dozier provided great commentary on the situation, praising Miguel Sano’s productive at-bat, moving Gordon to third on a long, fly ball to right. J. B. Shuck walked to continue the productive at-bats, and then ByungHo Park wasted no time scoring Gordon from third, lifting the first pitch he saw (a ball up in the zone) to right field for a sacrifice fly and game-winning RBI. “Good teams find a way to manufacture runs in those situations,” Dozier said. While I’m not ready to call this team good, I’m confident they’ll be competitive and could even be buyers at the trade deadline. Sano, Buxton, Kepler, and Park are all going to be better this season. The starting rotation will be better, albeit still probably one of the worst in the league, and the bullpen is going to be better than it lets on. Having Brandon Kintzler and Glen Perkins at the back end of your bullpen isn’t terrible, and Breslow and Belisle impressed on Wednesday. So instead of shopping Dozier at the deadline, the Twins could be in a position to add a pitcher…or maybe they’ll do both.