MINNEAPOLIS — The standings will reflect that the Red Sox showed up to play the Minnesota Twins at Target Field Thursday afternoon. But not much else did.
In a desultory performance on a humid day, the Sox were overwhelmed by righthander Joe Ryan in a 6-0 loss.
Ryan retired 27 of the 30 batters he faced, allowing only singles by Rafael Devers, David Hamilton, and Justin Turner.
Ryan (8-4) struck out nine without a walk and threw 83 of his 112 pitches for strikes.
The Sox did not advance a runner beyond first base or come close to another hit in a game that lasted only 2 hours and 15 minutes.
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It was the first complete-game shutout for the Twins since April 1, 2018, when José Berríos beat the Orioles, 7-0, also with a three-hitter. The last pitcher to throw a complete-game shutout against the Red Sox was Oakland’s Sean Manaea with his no-hitter on April 21, 2018.
The Sox fell to 17-3 that day and laughed it off on their way to winning the World Series. Now they’re 39-37 after splitting this four-game series.
Ryan threw the Red Sox a steady stream of four-seam fastballs up in the strike zone while mixing in splitters to keep the hitters from locking in on one location.
“It’s one of the best fastballs in the league right now,” Sox manager Alex Cora said.
The Sox fouled off 34 pitches, but Ryan was relentless in his approach. With the ball coming from a lower-than-usual arm slot, his fastball gave the illusion of rising.
“It was like the ball had a hop,” said Devers, who was 1 for 3.
Before Thursday, Ryan’s longest career outing was 7⅔ innings. But Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent him back out for the ninth inning, which drew a loud cheer from the crowd of 28,553.
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Ryan threw 14 pitches, 13 of them fastballs, to finish the game. He struck out Jarren Duran, got Turner on a popup to second base, and then Masataka Yoshida on a fly to left field.
“From beginning to end, he did everything to dominate that game,” Baldelli said. “He was in the zone. All of his stuff was good. He was throwing as hard as you’ll see him throw in the eighth and ninth inning right there.”
Ryan allowed two home runs in his last start, a loss against the Tigers. That’s the danger of relying on fastballs. But the Red Sox never mounted a threat.
“Throw strikes and throw a lot of them and use good pitches to get them out. That’s what it is,” Ryan said. “Sometimes they hit the ball farther than they need to in my game. And then today, they didn’t do that. So that was nice.”
Hamilton, who made his major league debut as a pinch runner Wednesday, lined a fastball to left field in the eighth inning for his first hit.
That earned him a pat on the back from first baseman Donovan Solano as Ryan obligingly tossed the ball to the Red Sox dugout.
“It was amazing,” Hamilton said. “Probably one of the best feelings of my life.”
Hamilton said his father was happy and his mother was crying after the game. As for the ball?
“They stole it from me,” Hamilton joked.
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With Tanner Houck on the injured list after being struck in the face by a line drive last week, the Sox filled his rotation spot by using righthander Justin Garza as an opener, with lefthander Brandon Walter following him.
Garza (0-2) allowed long home runs to left field by Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton in the first inning.
In his major league debut, Walter gave the Red Sox 6⅔ innings and 92 pitches. He allowed three runs on six hits. Buxton also homered off Walter.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.