What a return! Lewis’ game-tying HR leads to walk-off for Twins
MINNEAPOLIS — When Royce Lewis was watching the 2021 World Series from residence, he liked watching future teammate and mentor Carlos Correa celebrating an enormous homer for the Astros by tapping his outstretched wrist — the gesture signaling, “It’s my time.”
That’s why, as Lewis glided towards third base following his dramatic game-tying homer within the eighth inning of the Twins’ 7-6, walk-off win over the Guardians on Thursday, he checked out third-base coach Tommy Watkins and tapped his outstretched wrist.
Because it’s lastly time.
“It’s time,” Lewis mentioned. “It’s not my time. It’s just the Twins’ time. It’s time to play baseball. It’s time for me to have fun again. It’s time to celebrate a homer.”
Regardless of what Lewis says, it’s his time. He’s waited lengthy sufficient for this, sitting on the sidelines via arduous recoveries from two torn ACLs that price him back-to-back seasons, ready solely to dream of those moments and relive the reminiscences of the quick, explosive 12-game cameo he acquired to reside his large league dream earlier than it was wrenched away from him final May.
The hometown followers didn’t get to see Lewis’ speedy splash upon his return to the workforce earlier this week — so he placed on an encore, only for them.
Only days after nearly singlehandedly prepared the Twins to a victory over the Astros with a three-run homer and game-tying single within the ninth inning throughout his season debut on Monday, the membership’s No. 2 prospect commanded the highlight once more in his first recreation of the season at Target Field.
Lewis’ two-run blast erased the three-run deficit earlier than Willi Castro‘s walk-off sacrifice fly within the ninth lifted the Twins to their third win in 4 video games.
The scuffling Minnesota offense lacked large hits in large moments for weeks, it appeared. And whereas the Twins hoped Lewis’ return would give them a jolt, they couldn’t have anticipated how these game-changing moments would hold discovering him — or how he would, so shortly, change into the man they need on the plate in these moments.
“Royce being Royce, he’s ready,” Byron Buxton mentioned. “That situation, there’s nobody else you want in that situation to go up there. His positivity and confidence, it’s out the roof.”
Lewis’ continued heroics and the massive comeback did ease the influence of a recreation that featured a number of regarding developments elsewhere on the roster, from the five-run sixth inning that acquired away from Pablo López to injury-related exits for Buxton (sore ribs), Carlos Correa (plantar fasciitis) and Max Kepler (migraines), all of which must be evaluated once more within the morning.
But within the second, all that was forgotten within the raucous pleasure as Lewis rounded the bases after parking Guardians reliever Trevor Stephan’s center-cut fastball an estimated 421 toes away to the grass berm over the center-field wall. After two sliders, he figured he was getting a fastball — and he was proper.
Buxton, who had simply completed affixing an ice pack to his left aspect, was trudging from the clubhouse to the dugout on the time.
He didn’t see it. But he certain heard it.
“I was making it right down to the steps,” Buxton mentioned. “And then I heard the crowd. It was actually kind of cool. … Definitely got chills off of that.”
That’s what the Lewis expertise entails. It’s not simply what you see; a lot of the time, you may as well really feel his presence in what he brings to the dugout and the clubhouse — and, on Thursday, Buxton and others definitely heard his presence in that game-changing second.
“He brings a lot of energy, and obviously, a lot of talent,” Correa mentioned. “He’s on fire out of the gate. That’s a great player right there with a lot of talent. We saw what he can do last year for the short amount of time he was here. He’s going to be a special player in this league.”
If it’s now the Twins’ time as properly to begin profitable extra of those video games, Lewis’ jolt appears to have performed no small half in that.
And whereas the Twins hope Correa gained’t have to miss extra time with the plantar fasciitis, having a younger, dynamic shortstop taking part in like this might definitely take some stress off the state of affairs.
“There’s a reason why he was so highly thought of as a young player,” supervisor Rocco Baldelli mentioned. “What he’s done so far, just in a couple games, we’re not winning these games unless he’s doing some of these things in these games.”
