Twins beat Tigers 5-3 after Royce Lewis leaves game in sixth inning

The answer carried far more weight than if anyone else had said it, just because Royce Lewis’ optimism and enthusiasm normally envelop him like oxygen. But the Twins’ third baseman, a contender for an All-Star invitation despite playing only 24 games this season, was tellingly subdued Tuesday night, even gloomy.

Are you optimistic, Lewis was asked, that the left groin tightness you suffered during the Twins’ 5-3 victory over Detroit, is minor?

“This is out of my control. I have no idea. But probably not very optimistic, to be honest with you,” Lewis said somberly. “I’m praying, but it’s usually always horrible news.”

He’s got a point. Lewis has required two knee reconstructions that kept him out for a year apiece, and suffered a quad injury in the third inning of Opening Day last March that cost him two more months.

So though the Twins won a game started by Tigers lefthander Tarik Skubal, “one of the five best starting pitchers in the big leagues,” according to Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, the fallout from this game might not be entirely encouraging.

Simeon Woods Richardson virtually matched Skubal’s three-run, four-hit performance, Manuel Margot and Carlos Correa each hit mammoth home runs, and Byron Buxton scored from third base despite a pulled-in infield ready to foil him, earning the Twins their fifth win in six games.

Also contributing a big hit: Lewis, who yanked a low-and-inside changeup down the left-field line for a two-run double in the third inning, which gave the Twins their first lead — and cost them their third baseman.

“I definitely felt a little bit of something” as he raced to second base, said Lewis, who has already missed 61 games this year. “It just was tighter, and when it got to the point of, I couldn’t even run at 50 percent … when I got to that point, I was like, if I had to run from first to home or second to home, I couldn’t have done it. So I just wanted to make sure that our team had the best people in the game at the time.”

He was removed to start the sixth inning, and the Twins sent Lewis for a magnetic resonance imaging test to assess the severity of his injury.

“It’s still tight, you know,” Lewis said. “That’s all I have for you.”

Woods Richardson had plenty for the Tigers, who despite lagging 10 games behind the Twins in the AL Central, are still pesky enough to split the eight games they’ve played this year. The Twins’ rookie righthander allowed only one hit through four innings — then went though a four-batter rough patch.

BOXSCORE: Twins 5, Detroit 3

Justyn-Henry Malloy cracked an 0-2 pitch into the left-field seats to lead off the inning, and Akil Baddoo followed by beating out an infield hit.

Woods Richardson tried to pick off the speedy outfielder but threw the ball away, and Baddoo took third. After Jake Rogers flew out, Woods Richardson compounded his mistake by leaving a slider where Ryan Kreidler could reach it, and the light-hitting shortstop pummeled his second home run of his three-year career.

“Two [bad] pitchers happened, but that’s baseball. … You’ve got to let that go,” said Woods Richardson, who has allowed more than three runs only three times in his 14 starts. “I’m glad Rocco let me go back out there [for the sixth]. Showing faith. Showing trust. Showing belief.”

Plenty of belief in the Twins’ offense now, too, after they extended their Twins-record streak of 20 consecutive games with a home run. They’ve scored an average of 6.35 runs during the streak.

“I like it. I like it. We play everyone, one through nine, and they’ve all been contributing,” Baldelli said. “It’s part of playing winning baseball, when you can just force, as the offensive team forcing the action, not just by hitting balls hard but by having tough at-bats all the time. That’s what you want to see.”

They also want to see a healthy Royce Lewis. We’ll know soon if that wish is granted.