Royce Lewis’ two-homer game and Joe Ryan’s gem lead Twins to 7-1 rout of Rockies

DENVER — Coors Field finally acted like Coors Field for the Twins on Sunday, and Royce Lewis finally acted like Royce Lewis. And Joe Ryan, well, he acted like the All-Star he already is.

Lewis, frustrated and baffled by his slump-ridden season, homered twice for the first time in his career in a regular-season game, Matt Wallner and Harrison Bader also sent home run balls sailing into the mile-high altitude, and Ryan followed up his All-Star appearance by striking out a season-high 11 Colorado Rockies. It added up to a face-saving 7-1 victory at Coors Field, the Twins avoiding a sweep at the hands of a historically bad team.

“I made a list of all the really positive things that went on, and it was probably too many to go through,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. Speaking specifically of Lewis, he said, “It was beautiful. … He felt like himself in a lot of ways today. I don’t think he could’ve looked much better.”

Lewis jumped on a middle-of-the-plate slider from Colorado lefthander Ryan Rolison in the fourth inning, rocketing the ball 451 feet to left-center field — the longest home run in the third baseman’s career.

“I’ll tell you what, it doesn’t feel that far because when it’s only four rows deep, I thought it barely went out,” Lewis said with a smile. “But 452 [feet], 152 — a homer is a homer. I’ll take it. It was exciting.”

It got better. Four innings later, he saw another forlorn hit-me slider, this one from righthander Jimmy Herget, and Lewis deposited it into the seats in left field, only his fourth home run of the season.

The big day couldn’t have come at a better time for Lewis, who acknowledged Saturday that his difficulties in recapturing his pre-injury form of 2023 had begun to affect him mentally.

BOXSCORE: Twins 7, Colorado 1

MLB standings

And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Twins, too, considering they had lost three straight games to last-place teams and entered Sunday with the 11th-best record in the American League, five games out of a playoff spot. But even if the Twins jettison a few players at the trade deadline, catcher Ryan Jeffers said, their chances aren’t over.

“The Tigers were in the same spot we’re in last year, seemingly out of the playoffs,” Jeffers pointed out, and indeed, Detroit opened the second half three games below .500 and 12 games out of first place, nearly identical to the Twins today. “They came back and put together a really good second half after selling [players at the trade deadline]. ... [It] doesn’t mean you can’t go out there and win a lot of baseball games and make things interesting down the stretch.”

Especially if Ryan pitches like this. The righthander, who struck out Manny Machado and Kyle Tucker in his perfect inning at the All-Star Game just five days earlier, built on that reputation as he opened his second half of the season. He allowed five hits, and though three were for extra bases, including Mickey Moniak’s third-inning home run, Ryan never allowed the Rockies to put more than one runner on base per inning.

He didn’t walk a batter, struck out at least one Rockies batter in every inning and needed only 88 pitches to do it. Ryan McMahon — who had homered in each of the series’ first two games, both Colorado victories — this time doubled twice against Ryan but never advanced another base.

Meanwhile, the Twins offense took advantage of the extra-large outfield to pile up a dozen hits, including four home runs and two triples. The bottom four hitters in the Twins lineup went 7-for-15, including Christian Vázquez’s first three-hit game of the season. The last of the three-baggers, Willi Castro’s in the ninth inning, added a run when the throw to third base hopped past McMahon and into the Twins dugout, allowing Castro to score.

But the talk afterward was about Lewis and his breakout, which came shortly after a one-on-one sit-down with Baldelli before the game.

“It was awesome,” said Kody Clemens, who tripled for the second straight day. “Hopefully that kick-starts him a little bit and makes it easier to get going again.”

Lewis wouldn’t mind that — but he had other priorities, too.