That swing. That roar. That smile.
Those moments haven’t been seen, or heard, lately when Royce Lewis steps into the batter’s box because of a dip in production that has lasted nearly a month. August also was the month in which the Twins forgot how to win a series, a bad habit when a team is hunting for October baseball.
In the eighth inning Sunday, we were reminded of the jolt Lewis brings to the Twins and the joy he brings to supporters at Target Field. At the end of an eight-pitch at-bat, Toronto righthander Chad Green left a slider over the plate, and that swing returned.
Lewis connected with the pitch near the end of his bat. But the ball carried just over the left field wall for a three-run homer. That roar from the crowd that comes whenever Lewis does something spectacular was back.
Lewis rounded the bases, crossed home plate and celebrated with teammates — and his megawatt smile returned. Honestly, Lewis can strike out four times in a game and still smile. But Lewis needed that moment because he entered Sunday batting .213 over his previous 23 games. The Twins needed it because they had lost three consecutive series before rallying for a 4-3 victory to take two of three games from the Blue Jays despite getting outscored 18-5 in the series. And the fans needed it just so they wouldn’t melt down, at least for a day.
“And when we won, I think that was when everyone had that little sigh of relief and excitement just cause we needed it,” Lewis said. “We love winning, and it gets us back on the same page of doing it more often.”
The Twins head to St. Petersburg, Fla., for four games against the Tampa Bay Rays with a little momentum. They are effectively tied for Kansas City for second place in the AL Central Division, 3½ games behind Cleveland for first place. They are about a week or so away from getting Byron Buxton off the injured list. They need to keep winning series, and Lewis’ blast could be the pivot point they needed to charge through the final weeks of the regular season.
“It’s September,” said righthander Bailey Ober, who gave up a solo home run in the first inning but recovered to strike out eight batters over six innings. “We’re trying to make a push. We’re trying to get healthy; we’re trying to get on a roll.”
