Royce Lewis, always the optimist, plans to remember Wednesday's 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in 10 innings for the memorable homer he hit in the fifth inning, destroying a section of a ribbon board where the ball landed.
The part he plans to forget: A throwing error with two outs in the top of the 10th inning, allowing Randy Arozarena to score from second base as the go-ahead run. Lewis fielded a two-hop ground ball and his throw tailed too far to the left, a tough angle for first baseman Carlos Santana as the ball skipped into foul territory.
The loss snapped the Twins' six-game winning streak and gave them their first extra-inning loss in four attempts this year. Lewis, Max Kepler and Carlos Correa came to the plate with a runner on second base in the bottom of the 10th inning, but they all came up empty.
"This sport can humble you very easily," Lewis said. "I'm not going to let that define my day, my year or who I am because it was just unfortunate bad timing. … I wouldn't do anything different about that play. I set my feet and made the best throw I could."
Lewis amazed once again in the fifth inning. He received a cutter over the heart of the plate in a 1-2 count from Rays righthander Taj Bradley, and he drilled it to the facing of the second deck in left field. The ball left his bat at 109 mph, the hardest-hit ball of the game, and it broke the section of the ribbon video board it hit.
Literal lights-out power.
"Is that what happened?" Lewis said. "I did notice it was out. I was thinking, man, they have to be really [mad] that it's not working. I didn't know it was from the homer, so that's pretty cool."
Turning into the modern-day version of Roy Hobbs, Lewis let out a yell and looked at his teammates in the dugout when he began his home run trot. His eight homers in his first 14 games of the season are a team record, one more than Byron Buxton (2022) and Harmon Killebrew (1961).
"I told [hitting coach David Popkins], 'Hey, I don't do that slump thing. That's not a real thing for me,'" said Lewis, who was hitless in five at-bats Tuesday. "I understand that that's a thing in baseball that you're going to go into a slump or whatever, but for me I don't have that mindset. It's a new day."
In the seventh inning, after Cole Sands replaced starter Joe Ryan, Ben Rortvedt hit a one-out single and José Caballero entered as a pinch runner. Caballero swiped second base and advanced to third when Correa missed catcher Christian Vázquez's throw attempting a quick tag.
The extra base was costly to the Twins because Caballero scored the game-tying run on a soft dribbler to third base. Steven Okert took over for Sands after the infield hit, and he left the bases loaded after walking an additional batter.
Twins reliever Josh Staumont, who hasn't allowed an earned run this season, walked three batters in the eighth inning, but he escaped after Yandy DÃaz lined out to left field with the bases loaded.
BOXSCORE: Tampa Bay 3, Twins 2 (10)
The Twins caught a break in the 10th inning before Lewis' error. After Jorge Alcala hit Arozarena with a pitch, giving him two runners on base with none out, he had a wild pitch that rebounded from the backstop directly to Vázquez. Jose Siri, the automatic runner at second base, was tossed out trying to advance to third.
"We have to find ways to win games where even if we make a mistake or two — there's always mistakes," Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli said. "When you have those low-scoring games and they're tight games, I don't like pointing to the one play that's the difference in the game. Because if you score a few runs, you're not as concerned about those things."
Ryan yielded one run and six hits in six innings. Isaac Paredes, the Rays' third baseman, hit a solo homer to left field in the third inning, connecting on an inside splitter, and he was the only runner Ryan allowed to reach third base. Rays hitters had trouble with Ryan's fastball, whiffing on 12 of their 27 swings against the pitch.
