MINNEAPOLIS — With the back end of the bullpen on fire and a late lead gone, the Twins’ offense came at just the right time Monday night.
Rookie Edouard Julien set off a game-winning rally with a solo home run in the eighth inning, and the Twins’ offense woke up, defeating the Kansas City Royals 8-4 in front of 28,218 players at Target Field. Carlos Correa also hit a single during a five-run breakout, part of a 4-on-5 evening as the Twins returned to .500 and took a one-game American League Central lead over Cleveland.
Five days after holding an all-players meetup in Atlanta and reorganizing their pregame approach, the Twins delivered one of their more complete innings of the season. Included in the mix was Julien’s home run, a free pass, a single bloop downfield, a laser down the line and a bunt base hit.
“This is what it looks like when you combine a couple of good swings and just a couple of hard shots,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “Julien goes out and does one and obviously that puts us in a much better position in the game. But then Joey Gallo goes out, he’s a good hitter, and then some other hard hitters followed. I really liked what I saw.”
Before the game, the Twins seemed to agree that they liked the atmosphere as their new batsmen met. Where daily meetings used to be chaired by the coaching staff, who presented a plan of attack and a detailed scouting report of what to expect, the team’s batsmen now chair the meetings.
Most players agree that not much is different. Correa said he still relies heavily on beating coach David Popkins to get an idea of how teams will attack him when he’s at the plate.
But unlike before, players share their opinions on what certain pitchers look like and how they plan to attack.
“We communicate a lot better through the pitchers,” said outfielder Max Kepler, who won 4-2 with an RBI and an outstanding catch in the eighth inning. “We’ve done that from the beginning, only now we’re doing it differently.”
Everyone agrees that the twins do things differently. Nobody says they work harder. On the contrary, during his rant last Wednesday, Baldelli suggested his players had already “worked their asses off” they just needed to think about doing it differently.
Though he described the tone of the lengthy encounter as positive, designated hitter Byron Buxton, who finished 3-0 with two sacrifice flies and two RBIs, offered little detail other than to mention that no coaches were involved.
“You’re not going to get too much out of me,” Buxton said. “I’ll tell you that at the outset. This is us. We made that up as part of us. It was done behind closed doors because that’s where it’s supposed to stay. … Nothing has changed. It’s just that we run our own meeting. We take responsibility for what we do because ultimately this is our career. For us, we are the ones who go to play every day. It’s up to us to keep coming together and finding ways to produce.”
Monday’s production arrived on time.
Approacher Jhoan Duran was taboo while Baldelli preferred to stay away from setup man Griffin Jax unless absolutely necessary. For a bullpen without the injured Brock Stewart and Jorge López, who is on the injured list for mental health issues, Baldelli worked with an extremely thin group full of green substitutes.
The Twins appeared to be in a winless situation late in the eighth inning after rookie Brent Headrick hit a game-winning solo home run to Nick Pratto.
But Julien, who was expected to score later in the inning and, when told he was going to take the lead, was in such a hurry that he snatched a teammate’s elbow pad because it was nowhere to close was found, delivered. Julien was in a hurry, but he knew substitute Taylor Clarke had a good slider and that he wanted to avoid getting to two shots. When Clarke ran a 96 mph fastball down the middle, Julien fell on the first pitch.
“I just thought I wasn’t going to hit the leadoff and end up in the four-hole,” Julien said. “If someone went on base, I would hit the four-hole. I was late too. I was sitting on the couch and they were yelling, “Eddie, you go running!” I rushed back to the dugout and couldn’t find my elbow pad. It wasn’t there. I just picked any elbow pad I wanted, put it on and had no idea what the pitcher had. I just swung.”
His 413-foot drive quickly put the momentum in the Twins’ favour.
After Willi Castro flew wide to the right, Gallo followed with a one-out walk and ran into third place when Christian Vázquez hit a one-strike slider across the right field line. An inning after Michael A. Taylor made the catch of the game, he threw a base hit to make it 5-3. Kepler then ripped an RBI single in front of Correa, who pulled a ball through the left flank for another RBI single.
Alex Kirilloff followed up with the second of his two hits to set up a run and take the Twins to five. The rally allowed Jax, who began warming up while the Twins were 4-3 up, to take a temporary seat, although he briefly threw again when Emilio Pagán struggled in the ninth inning.
The breakout helped turn the tide into what appeared to be another competition with too many runs at stake.
In the first half, Correa trailed 1-0, took a lead with a hustle double in the Twins half, advanced to third base with a single from Donovan Solano and scored with Buxton’s line drive sac fly to the left . The Twins took a 2-1 lead in the second half when Castro walked, stole second place and scored after a blunder by Taylor upfield into the right middle.
A third run came on the fifth run as Kepler and Correa hit a single and Solano passed Buxton’s flyout to deep middle.
But the Twins missed twice in the fifth round and another landed on goal in the sixth, allowing Kansas City to hold on.
The late avalanche of runs led the Twins to their third win in four attempts since beating Atlanta in a series where a three-run deficit felt like 10. The Twins also scored eight runs in their series opener Friday in Baltimore. That gives reason to hope that an offensive that has been dormant for most of the season is beginning to come to terms with it.
But last week’s meeting is not necessarily a panacea or a guaranteed solution. The results weren’t perfect, as evidenced by the fact that the Twins scored a goal each Saturday and Sunday. Even if the results didn’t come, the Twins liked their approach to what they felt was a far cry from a listless Atlanta series.
“If you look at our at-bats in the Atlanta series, at some point we have to make an adjustment and reduce the number of strikeouts and just be more competitive,” Correa said. “If you look at the best teams, they have long attacking strokes and they are always there. They make it difficult for the pitcher. … That’s what we want on a consistent basis, to be able to put together good hitters like that as a team. That was a perfect example of that.”
Correa has been hot since he moved into first place
Correa ripped a grounder down the middle for a double in the first inning. His single in the third inning was more of a bleed to the middle. He shot a single to the right in the fifth and ripped one through the hole in the eighth to finish 4-of-5.
It was Correa’s first four-goal game of the season and the twelfth of his career.
“He was shooting and filming and doing all sorts of things,” Baldelli said. “But that’s what good batsmen have to do and he’s doing it right now. He comes to the base for us. He makes things happen.”
Since Correa took the lead four games ago, it’s been 8 out of 17.
“It feels great,” Correa said. “I’ve talked about always having a better two-strike approach, and I’m just trying to lead by example and not just go out there and try to be a slugger, but try to be a hitter.” just trying to hit the ball on a line.”
Lewis will be out for at least six weeks with an oblique injury
Royce Lewis said his mother Cindy knew he was injured the moment he left Saturday’s game. On Monday, Lewis learned his oblique injury was a Grade 2 strain that is expected to sideline him for at least six weeks, Baldelli said.
Lewis, who returned to the big leagues on May 29 a year after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament, said he immediately felt pain in his left side that got progressively worse the closer he got to first base. In 99 plate appearances, the rookie hits .326/.354/.474 with four homers and 15 RBIs.
“It felt like someone stuck a knife in my back,” Lewis said. “You don’t want to get hurt and just stand on the sidelines. That’s how it feels. At the same time, I can only control what I can control. I can’t control if I had an incline (injury) or not, so now it’s just, “Where do I go from here?” Same as the ACL. Knock on wood, that’s not a year. It definitely makes it a lot easier to deal with. Every other time I was on the IL it took a full year and I had no control over whether or not I could come back. So it makes it a lot easier. Actually, I don’t even know what the deal is. I’m waiting to speak to the doctor.”
(Photo by Edouard Julien: David Berding / Getty Images)