MINNEAPOLIS — Not hitting is contagious, the Twins said as much throughout their extended slump — but hitting is contagious, too, they noted all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the Minnesota offense tries to build on the momentum of its 10-run,\u00a0sausage-fueled outburst<\/a>\u00a0from Tuesday, there were even more signs of the once-sputtering lineup starting to cough back to life, as Willi Castro, Brooks Lee and\u00a0Royce Lewis<\/a>\u00a0all snapped extended hitless streaks on Wednesday, paving the way for the Twins\u2019\u00a06-4<\/a>\u00a0victory over the Angels at Target Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, and they\u2019re now getting\u00a0Byron Buxton<\/a>\u00a0back, too, as manager Rocco Baldelli announced after the victory that the center fielder will return to the Twins\u2019 roster for Friday\u2019s series opener against the Reds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Carlos Correa also\u00a0appearing to be on the cusp of returning soon<\/a>\u00a0after that, this is where the Twins really build their momentum for the stretch run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019s great for everyone, because it\u2019s just a glimmer of hope, no matter how we were feeling or what was going on in the past,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cFrom the present on, and looking toward the future, to have Buck or Correa, all these guys coming back it seems like, it just gives us hope and having them around is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present, another needed win — all of them are needed at this point — kept the Twins three games ahead of the victorious Tigers for the\u00a0final AL Wild Card spot<\/a>, with Minnesota also holding the tiebreaker between the teams. The Twins\u00a0remained six back<\/a>\u00a0of the division-leading Guardians in the AL Central.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, it looked for several moments that Lewis had continued to break out of his 0-for-22 slump in the grandest — and most fitting — fashion with a dagger grand slam in the seventh inning. But it was overturned by replay and deemed a two-run double, which still gave the Twins needed insurance runs as Lewis recorded only his second multihit game since Aug. 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the absence of both Buxton and Correa, Lewis had deeply struggled to a .444 OPS across his 20 previous games leading into Wednesday, citing fatigue as he navigated his longest period of extended action in years. But, as Baldelli noted, perhaps it isn\u2019t the worst thing for Lewis to learn how to get through his first real career slump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI mean, I was 2-for-4 tonight — that\u2019s all I really focused on,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cHonestly, I\u2019ve been focusing on trying to get my body prepared and excited for the opportunity to play every night. This is just a new type of grind for me. I\u2019m looking forward to the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as important earlier in the game was the three-run rally in the fourth inning that helped the Twins erase an early deficit. After consecutive singles to begin the inning, Castro snapped an 0-for-16 skid with the game-tying single to shallow center before Lee broke out of his own 0-for-19 funk with a two-run double to the gap in left-center, putting Minnesota on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we feel good,\u201d said Matt Wallner, who homered in the first inning. \u201cGuys getting hits and just continuous hits, driving guys in from scoring position, is huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n All that\u2019s to say: It\u2019s a good time to be getting one of the club\u2019s big boppers back, likely soon followed by the other, with the lineup starting to snap out of its collective funk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[Buxton] said he’s ready to play,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cSo I said, \u2018Good.\u2019 It was kind of easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Triple-A St. Paul on the road in Columbus, the Twins had brought four Single-A pitchers to Target Field to pitch to Manuel Margot, Max Kepler, Buxton and Correa for live at-bats almost in lieu of a rehab assignment, which perhaps allowed them to expedite their return to the field, as Margot and Buxton did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Time is ticking with only 16 games to go, with the urgency both stated and punctuated by how the Twins pulled starter Zebby Matthews in the fourth inning and turned to a flurry of five relievers to close the game out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That included two innings from Griffin Jax for the first time this season, as he pitched in front of his entire family hours after his twin brothers and sister-in-law had participated in the pregame flyover and ceremonial first pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s going to be urgency all the way through this and we have to win,\u201d Baldelli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they\u2019re on the cusp of having their best remaining players back to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MINNEAPOLIS — Not hitting is contagious, the Twins said as much throughout their extended slump — but hitting is contagious, too, they noted all along. As the Minnesota offense tries to build on the momentum of its 10-run,\u00a0sausage-fueled outburst\u00a0from Tuesday, there were even more signs of the once-sputtering lineup starting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":285977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286743,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286742\/revisions\/286743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/285977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}