After demotion to St. Paul, Twins' Jose Miranda beginning to break out of slump

Down in a 0-2 count during a game for the Class AAA Saints on Tuesday, Jose Miranda lifted a fastball down the left field line that had the distance for a home run. As he took a few steps out of the batter's box, the ball hooked foul.

For much of the season, that's been the way things have gone for Miranda.

Six pitches after hooking a long foul ball, Miranda ended a nine-pitch at-bat with a double into the left-center gap. It was his second extra-base hit in 21 games at St. Paul. Miranda added his third extra-base hit when he ripped a double past the third baseman in the eighth inning Tuesday.

Miranda is 18-for-48 (.375 batting average) with 12 RBI and 12 runs over his past 12 games. He has recorded nearly as many walks (four) as strikeouts (six), with four doubles and a homer.

"You just have to concentrate on what you've got in front of you," Miranda said. "Right now, I'm in AAA. I'm trying to play good and do all my stuff the right way. That's the only thing that matters. Obviously, I had some other things in my mind before the year started. It didn't start the way I wanted, but it's part of the game. It's part of how this goes."

Miranda, 24, wasn't the only one who expected bigger things after his rookie season. The Twins cleared third base for him when they traded Gio Urshela during the offseason and envisioned him hitting in the middle of their lineup.

In a little more than a month, he was demoted to St. Paul. Miranda's .593 OPS in the majors ranks 238th among the 252 hitters who have totaled at least 140 plate appearances. He grounded into as many double plays (seven) as he had extra-base hits.

With a healthy Royce Lewis manning third base, there are probably as many positional questions surrounding Miranda as a year ago.

"I wasn't doing great, obviously," Miranda said. "It wasn't my best moment. Maybe [the demotion] surprised me a little bit, but it's part of it. For me, it's fine. Just come down here, put in the work and try to be back there soon."

Miranda struggled during his first couple of weeks in the minor leagues, hitting .155 in his first 14 games with 12 strikeouts and zero extra-base hits.

"Hitting sometimes is weird," Miranda said. "You start doing some stuff that you don't know how it happened. That's the crazy part of this game."

Miranda has played primarily third base during his time in the minor leagues, committing three errors in 150 innings, with five starts at first base — he committed a fielding error there Saturday night. Miranda's defense is another area he knows he needs to improve, one of the reasons he was demoted in the second week of May.

"I want to be an all-around good player," he said. "I don't want to be known just as an offensive guy. I'm doing the work every day trying to get better. That's the mentality I'm going to have for the rest of my career."

• In his third rehab start, righthander Kenta Maeda threw four scoreless innings for the Saints in Saturday night's 9-3 loss to Iowa, giving up three hits and no walks while striking out five over 60 pitches. He topped out at 91.5 miles per hour with his fastball. Joey Gallo, also on a rehab assignment, hit a home run that went an estimated 445 feet out of CHS Field.

The Twins placed second baseman Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list Saturday because of a left hamstring injury, an injury he suffered running to first during Thursday's loss at Tampa Bay.

It is Polanco's third stint on the IL this season and the second time it was caused by his left hamstring.

Edouard Julien, a native of Québec City, was called up for the series in his home country. Julien hit .320 with three doubles, a homer and 11 RBI across seven games in his latest stint at Class AAA, and he went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored in Saturday's 9-4 victory.

"I dreamed my whole life to play here," Julien told reporters in Toronto.