Few pitches make a hitter look as helpless as a high fastball, one that seems to pounce on the top of the strike zone before the batter can whip his bat around. But if the hitter is looking for it, few pitches look as juicy.
Joe Ryan proved both points during his major-league debut on Wednesday, wielding a 92-mph letter-high four-seamer that Ian Happ couldn't reach in the first inning, that Patrick Wisdom barely moved his bat toward before trudging back to the dugout in the second.
But when Frank Schwindel got that same pitch an inning later, with two runners on and two outs? Welcome to the majors, Joe Ryan — that ball landed a half-dozen rows up in the left-field seats, the difference between a win and a loss.
Ryan's first game in the majors was largely a success, but Justin Steele's 15th MLB game was even better. The Cubs' rookie righthander outpitched the Twins', collecting the win with five shutout innings in Chicago's 3-0 victory at Target Field.
A member of Team USA's silver-medal team at the Tokyo Olympics last month, Ryan set the Cubs down in order in four of his five innings. But the middle one of those innings spoiled an otherwise terrific launch. Ryan walked Alfonso Rivas to open the inning, his only walk of the game, then struck out Sergio Alcantara on a changeup. But Andrew Romine doubled to center field, the first hit of Ryan's career, moving Rivas to third.
The righthander, one of two pitchers acquired in July from Tampa Bay in exchange for Nelson Cruz, induced a fly ball to center from Rafael Ortega, too shallow to score Rivas. But it was moot just three pitches later, when Schwindel timed a high-and-inside 90-mph fastball and belted it 109.5 mph toward the seats in left field. Happ followed with a single, but Wisdom flew out to end the only rally of the game.
"He's shown what he an do. He's shown what kind of pitcher he can be," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of one of the most anticipated debuts in recent years. "There's a reason why we really wanted to acquire this young man."
Too bad they couldn't acquire Steele, too. The Cubs' rookie carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning, until another rookie, outfielder Brent Rooker, broke it up with a two-out single. But Steele, now 4-2 for the Cubs, ended the inning on a Ryan Jeffers ground out.
Adbert Alzolay relieved Steele and was just as spotless, allowing just one hit and no walks over four innings, striking out five, to complete the Cubs' sweep of the two-game series, Chicago's first visit to Target Field since 2014.
