Fans, family salute Twins' Carlos Correa after recording his 1,000th major league hit

After Carlos Correa recorded his 1,000th career hit in the third inning Tuesday, an opposite-field single through the right side of the infield, the Twins played a video montage of all his milestone hits throughout his career between innings.

His first career hit was an infield single off Chris Sale on June 8, 2015. The montage showed hits Nos. 100, 200, 300 and on, all the way through Tuesday's latest milestone for the 28-year-old shortstop.

"My father is here, and he's the one that I started with at 5 years old," said Correa, who received a standing ovation from the crowd of 25,003 when his 1,000th hit was acknowledged on the video board. "It's a special moment to get it while he was watching. I'm going to take my hat and jersey and give them to him. Without him, I wouldn't be here."

As much as 1,000 hits is a tribute to Correa's career — he became the 57th active player to achieve the milestone — this recent stretch is a chance to show how well he can make adjustments in the worst offensive season of his career. He accepted a move to leadoff hitter. After the Twins were swept in Atlanta last week, he's worked with the hitting coaches on hitting more line drives compared to "trying to launch balls."

Correa has nine hits in his past five games, with seven singles.

"I've been talking about always trying to have a better two-strike approach, and I'm just trying to lead by example," Correa said. "Trying not to just go out there and be a slugger, but try to be a hitter."

Correa was rated as the league's eighth-best hitter against four-seam fastballs last season, according to Statcast, and he struggled against sliders. This year, in the same metric, he's been much better against sliders and he's a below-average hitter against fastballs.

Watching a strength turn into a weakness is a reason why he has yet to break out offensively for a prolonged stretch.

"He's done such a good job of just keeping his energy up and not letting his lack of hitting at times bring anyone else down," Twins pitcher Joe Ryan said. "He stays pretty even throughout, which is all you can ask for. Everyone is going to go through struggles. How you handle that is the most important thing."

For the Twins to become their best offense, they need Correa and Byron Buxton to hit at their usual level. Last week, Correa said he felt responsible for the offense's issues.

"When you look at our at-bats in the Atlanta series, at some point, we're going to have to make an adjustment and cut down on the strikeouts and just be more competitive," Correa said. "When you look at the best teams, they have long at-bats and they're always in it."

Said Edouard Julien: "I think that's what has been different in the past couple of games, leading with Carlos. He just puts together a good two-strike at-bat and goes the other way. Maybe it fuels the other guys to do the same."

Correa's simplified approach works well at the top of the lineup. He had four hits Monday, the 12th four-hit game of his career. He's raised his batting average to .227, his high mark since April 21.

Three of his four hits Monday came in two-strike counts.

"This is how he really locks himself in by having the kinds of at-bats that he's having right now," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.

Correa pledged to make changes to his offensive approach for the second half of the season, and so far, it's paid off.

As he walked onto the field for the fourth inning Tuesday, he watched part of the montage that showed highlights from different stages of his career. A reason to celebrate and a reminder of what he can do when he's playing at his best.