September 1st, 2024
Do-Hyoung Park
@dohyoungparkMINNEAPOLIS -- That’s the kind of swing that completely flips the emotions of a challenging homestand -- and perhaps redirects the momentum of a playoff chase.
The Twins have been down two of their “big three” with the lingering injuries to both Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton, and the star they had left in their lineup hadn’t really been playing like one, as Royce Lewis’ production had largely fallen quiet amid the first real downswing of his career for much of August.
But Lewis came through when his team needed him most.
The momentum was, once again, slipping away from the Twins late on Sunday amid another quiet offensive showing. Minnesota was at risk of losing what had to be a winning series amid its playoff chase. Lewis’ big hack wrested that momentum right back, with his three-run homer in the eighth inning sending the Twins to a 4-3 victory over the Blue Jays at Target Field.
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“When we won, I think that was when everyone had that little sigh of relief and excitement, just because we needed it,” Lewis said.
His teammate echoed the sentiment.
“It's something I think we all needed,” reliever Griffin Jax added. “To get that at that point was huge. Sets the mood. Keeps the momentum going for the road trip. It came at the right time.”
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The come-from-behind victory helped the Twins keep pace with the Guardians at 3 1/2 games back in the American League Central following Cleveland’s victory earlier in the day. The Twins gained a game on the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card standings, pushing their lead to 4 1/2 games for the third and final Wild Card berth, although after the Royals' loss they are percentage points ahead in the second slot.
Amid a skid of nine losses in 12 games, including a historically bad 15-0 defeat to the Blue Jays on Saturday, the stage had been set for even deeper disappointment when the normally reliable Jax -- who hadn’t yielded a run in August -- allowed two runs to score in the top of the eighth after the Twins had just tied the game at 1-1.
But after singles by Ryan Jeffers and Austin Martin off reliever Chad Green, Lewis strode to the plate and battled through an eight-pitch at-bat that ended with him finally squaring up a slider to deep left field.
The ball took off at only 91.1 mph off the bat, but somehow it still carried into the flowerpots in front of the left-field porch, giving the Twins their weakest-hit homer since 2019. But they’ll take it, because they really needed it.
“I hit it off the end of the bat,” Lewis said. “I’ve never seen it. … So I’ll take that all day. Our team, I think we’ll all take that. It was just good timing for it to go out like that.”
Sunday’s performance represented a turning of the page for Lewis in multiple ways, especially as he made his defensive debut at second base -- a move he has approached with clear trepidation -- to further accommodate the positional needs of the team for the stretch run of the season.
It was also significant in that Lewis -- who once noted that, “I don’t do that slump thing” -- hit his first homer since Aug. 12 amid the first stretch of his career that could conceivably be construed as a slump.
That’s a period in which Lewis had hit .219/.250/.315 for a .565 OPS from Aug. 9 to Saturday. He had hits in 14 of those 18 games, but his power essentially vanished.
Lewis attributes that to the toll of a long season, pointing to how this stretch of games has essentially been the longest in which he’s been healthy and playing nearly every day since 2019. There's a month to go, and he feels his body is still catching up.
“I've listened to everybody here,” Lewis said. “They've all had guidance, different ways of doing it, and I'm still trying to figure my way out. I'm just happy that I'm doing everything I can. I'm trying different things, and hopefully I catch my second wind soon.”
While Lewis still looks to find that consistent second wind for himself, his heroics certainly seem to have brought that second wind to those around him in the clubhouse -- as he’s done so many times before.
“That eighth inning really brought a lot of oxygen into our room, into our dugout, I think, into the bodies of all of our players,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Got everybody going.”
