Twins' Edouard Julien has successful return to leadoff spot; Carlos Correa dropped in order

The Twins moved Edouard Julien back into the leadoff spot Saturday night, dropping Carlos Correa lower in the batting order, and Julien reached base seven times in nine plate appearances over two games.

"Hitting leadoff, second, third, fourth, nine, I don't really care," Julien said.

Julien, the rookie second baseman, is batting .353 since the start of July with a .450 on-base percentage. His emergence at the plate was the reason the Twins moved Jorge Polanco to third base after he returned from the injured list.

"Having him at the top of the order, knowing you're going to get a good amount of good at-bats," manager Rocco Baldelli said, "that's where he belongs right now for us."

Julien reached base in all four of his plate appearances in the Twins' 5-3 victory over Arizona on Sunday, including three times against Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen, refusing to chase curveballs or fastballs off the edges of the plate. All rookies experience ups and downs, especially as pitchers adjust to the way they hit, but Julien has shown he can hit for power with strong plate discipline.

"I wasn't hitting the fastball as well, so pitchers were attacking me a little bit more in the zone," Julien said. "Now that I'm able to show them I can stay inside the fastball, I can do damage on the offspeed stuff from them always pounding the zone."

The Twins demoted lefty reliever Jovani Moran to Class AAA before Sunday's game, one day after he walked three batters in the ninth inning with an 11-run lead.

In Moran's past nine relief appearances, he has yielded nine runs on seven hits and seven walks across seven innings (11.57 ERA).

"My message, when I talked to Jovani, is incredibly straightforward," Baldelli said. "Attack the zone. Just attack the zone from the first pitch of the at-bat basically to the last pitch of the at-bat every time. When he is throwing strikes in the oven of the strike zone, he's going to have a pretty successful time in the big leagues."

Moran was the lone lefty in the bullpen for stretches this season when Caleb Thielbar was on the injured list. From April 27 to June 3, Moran posted a 1.17 ERA in 15⅓ innings with 16 strikeouts and six walks while stranding 14 of his 15 inherited runners.

Lefthanded hitters are batting .190 vs. Moran this year, but he has walked them 13 times in 72 plate appearances.

Pitching coach Pete Maki "talked to him, walked him through some things and had a good conversation with him," Baldelli said. "He's going to go down. The mission is simple. I don't know exactly what he's going to do to get there, but just getting in the strike zone early and often, and late and often."

The Twins promoted lefthander Brent Headrick to fill Moran's spot in the bullpen.

• Ryan Jeffers made his third start of the season as a designated hitter Sunday, and he figures to grow that number over the next couple of weeks with Byron Buxton sidelined by a hamstring strain. "You look at his body of work, he's hit like a middle-of-the-order bat for us pretty much the whole year," Baldelli said of Jeffers, who entered Sunday with a .895 OPS in 203 plate appearances.

• Walker Jenkins, the Twins' first-round draft pick last month, made his professional debut Thursday in the rookie-level Florida complex league. In his first two games as a designated hitter, the 18-year-old had four hits in eight at-bats with a double and an RBI.

• Trevor Larnach provided two of the Class AAA Saints' three hits in their 2-0 loss at Columbus on Sunday, which included a double. Lefthander Kody Funderburk took the loss after giving up a run on two walks and a hit in 2⅓ innings.