Injuries to Royce Lewis, Sonny Gray mar Twins' 7-3 victory over Royals

The Twins salvaged a series split with the Royals and a winning homestand with a 7-3 victory on Sunday. And all it cost them was their hottest pitcher and their top prospect.

Royce Lewis, called up Sunday morning and asked to play center field for the first time in his big-league career, crashed into the wall in the third inning while making a spectacular catch that bruised his surgically repaired right knee. Lewis, who didn't travel with the team to Detroit after the game, will be placed on the 10-day injured list Monday and re-evaluated when the swelling subsides.

Four innings later, Sonny Gray, who retired 18 of the first 19 hitters he faced, suddenly felt soreness in his right pectoral muscle. He was quickly removed from what turned out to be his third victory of the season, and taken for tests to determine the source of his pain. Those tests will determine whether the righthander can make his next start Friday at Toronto.

"It was another great start. It's fun. He's like a little bulldog out there, going right at them," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "It was very nice — until we had to take him out."

That kind of day. At least there was good news, too. Byron Buxton was hit on his left hand by a Ronald Bolaños pitch in the sixth inning, and though he was examined for several minutes by a trainer and sent for X-rays after the game, "he was perfectly OK," Baldelli said. "We'll make sure he doesn't swell or anything like that, but I think he's going to be fine."

Just like the Twins lineup, those healthy enough to be in it, who feasted upon longtime rival Zack Greinke and the Royals bullpen. Gio Urshela crushed a three-run homer, Nick Gordon and Trevor Larnach hit back-to-back solo shots (and back-to-back doubles later), and the Twins put at least two runners on base in five of their eight turns to bat, an upbeat finish to a 4-3 homestand that gives them a 16-6 record against the AL Central.

"We're going to look after the guys who get hurt … but ultimately we are here to keep grinding this out and keep winning games any way possible," Baldelli said.

Gray has certainly found a way. The veteran righthander was dominating all afternoon, running his streak of scoreless innings to 16, a stretch that ended after he had left the game. After retiring 14 hitters in a row, Gray gave up a leadoff single to Andrew Benintendi in the seventh inning, then began raising his arm in discomfort four pitches later as Bobby Witt Jr. batted.

"He had some minor pec tightness during the game. Felt it for a couple of pitches. It wasn't something he was pitching through," Baldelli said of Gray, who threw 80 pitches. "We'll find out more in the coming day or two."

Griffin Jax relieved Gray and the Royals scored a couple of runs. But by then the Twins had piled up all the offense they would need, and could concentrate on their wounded.

Lewis' fate was particularly ironic, given that he was only three innings into his new role with the Twins — that of shortstop-in-waiting and utility-man-till-then. Eleven days after being sent back to Class AAA St. Paul with instructions to learn new positions, the 2017 No. 1 overall pick apparently graduated to a similar job in the majors.

"He's up for anything. He just wants to contribute and play," Baldelli said before writing Lewis' name in the lineup. "He was up for infield, outfield, bouncing around." After a week of training, of hundreds of fly balls and grounders before games, "we feel more confident now, and I'm sure he does, too, about being able to go out to center or left [fields] and play third [base] in addition to shortstop if we needed that."

The Twins even discussed whether Lewis' knee, which kept him out of action in 2021 after surgery, would be endangered by playing unfamiliar positions, and decided the risk was minimal.

That confidence lasted only three innings, when Emmanuel Rivera sent a fly ball screaming toward the center field fence. Lewis hustled back, tracked the ball well and caught it just before the ball crashed into the wall. Unfortunately, his body did instead, and his weight landed on his right leg.

He too was taken for imaging, which revealed a bone bruise, making him unavailable for at least a few days. With a doubleheader scheduled Tuesday at Detroit, the Twins cannot afford to have a sidelined player on the roster, Baldelli said, making a trip to the IL unavoidable.

That's the price of the job, his replacement said.

"Ten times out of 10, we're trying to get that ball," said Gordon, who hit his first homer of the season in Lewis' stead. "Praying for Royce, hoping he has nothing wrong and definitely speedy recovery."