TOLEDO, OHIO — Joe Ryan, a pitch­er on the U.S. sil­ver medal-win­ning team, made his se­cond strong start for the St. Paul Saints, but they lost 4-2 on Wednes­day night to the To­le­do Mud Hens.

Ryan gave up one run and four hits in five in­nings. He struck out eight, walked one. In his first game last week, the 6-2 righthander ac­quired in the Nelson Cruz trade last month, went four in­nings and gave up one run and one hit while strik­ing out nine, in­clud­ing the first six bat­ters.

In two starts with St. Paul he has a 2.00 ERA with 17 strikeouts in nine innings and has allowed just five hits and two walks.

This was the se­cond game of this se­ries and Mark Con­tre­ras hit a two-run hom­er that drove in Byron Buxton in the sixth for the Saints. Bux­ton was 2-for-4 with two singles.

Af­ter open­ing this se­ries a half-game behind the Mud Hens in the Midwest Division, the Saints have lost twice to fall 2½ games back.