Neal: With the return of Royce Lewis’ power swing comes the return of hope for Twins

That swing. That roar. That smile.

Those moments haven’t been seen, or heard, lately when Royce Lewis steps into the batter’s box because of a dip in production that has lasted nearly a month. August also was the month in which the Twins forgot how to win a series, a bad habit when a team is hunting for October baseball.

In the eighth inning Sunday, we were reminded of the jolt Lewis brings to the Twins and the joy he brings to supporters at Target Field. At the end of an eight-pitch at-bat, Toronto righthander Chad Green left a slider over the plate, and that swing returned.

Lewis connected with the pitch near the end of his bat. But the ball carried just over the left field wall for a three-run homer. That roar from the crowd that comes whenever Lewis does something spectacular was back.

Lewis rounded the bases, crossed home plate and celebrated with teammates — and his megawatt smile returned. Honestly, Lewis can strike out four times in a game and still smile. But Lewis needed that moment because he entered Sunday batting .213 over his previous 23 games. The Twins needed it because they had lost three consecutive series before rallying for a 4-3 victory to take two of three games from the Blue Jays despite getting outscored 18-5 in the series. And the fans needed it just so they wouldn’t melt down, at least for a day.

“And when we won, I think that was when everyone had that little sigh of relief and excitement just cause we needed it,” Lewis said. “We love winning, and it gets us back on the same page of doing it more often.”

The Twins head to St. Petersburg, Fla., for four games against the Tampa Bay Rays with a little momentum. They are effectively tied for Kansas City for second place in the AL Central Division, 3½ games behind Cleveland for first place. They are about a week or so away from getting Byron Buxton off the injured list. They need to keep winning series, and Lewis’ blast could be the pivot point they needed to charge through the final weeks of the regular season.

“It’s September,” said righthander Bailey Ober, who gave up a solo home run in the first inning but recovered to strike out eight batters over six innings. “We’re trying to make a push. We’re trying to get healthy; we’re trying to get on a roll.”

The Twins battled to tie the score at 1-1 in the seventh, only to see righthander Griffin Jax — one of the best relievers in the league with one of the nastiest sweepers in the game — give up two runs in the eighth. He plunked Toronto’s Leo Jimenez with the bases loaded to force in the go-ahead run; that’s how uncharacteristic of an outing it was.

But Ryan Jeffers and Austin Martin reached with one-out singles in the bottom of the inning, bringing Lewis to the plate against Green. And the Twins now are 1-0 when he plays second base.

That’s right. Twins baseball majordomo Derek Falvey, speaking on WCCO’s pregame show, said Lewis taking grounders at second base in recent days was part of a process. That process sped up about two and a half hours later when Carlos Santana pinch hit for Edouard Julien in the fifth inning.

BOXSCORE: Twins 4, Toronto 3

MLB standings

Santana remained in the game at first base, with Jose Miranda moving from first to third. Lewis, who had made all of five appearances at second base as a minor leaguer, moved from third to second. Lewis would have benefited from an offseason or spring training to get comfortable at the position. But that’s baseball.

And who knew that Toronto manager John Schneider would flash back to last year’s playoffs when he pulled José Berríos after three innings to bring in a lefthander at Target Field? Schneider turned the Twins lineup around again Sunday by pulling starter Yariel Rodriguez after three innings for lefty Ryan Yarbrough.

The Twins’ ensuing pinch-hit moves led to Lewis’ debut at second. But when the ball found him, he made the right plays. And when he found a pitch he liked in the eighth, he won the game.

Now we will find out if Lewis triggers a September surge.