Twins' Royce Lewis made it feel good to be a fan again

The Twins opened this season with four victories and gained first place in the American League Central. They surrendered the lead to Cleveland by a half-game twice, then took over first place on April 11 and held it until June 28, a period of 71 games.

Second place lasted only one game, but then the Twins took on Baltimore before the All-Star Game, were swept in three games (the last being 15-2) and Cleveland was a half-game in front when the break started July 9.

The schedule resumed on July 14 in Oakland, Joey Gallo hit a two-run home run in the ninth to break a 3-3 tie, Jhoan Duran had an adventurous save (5-4, visitors) and the Twins returned to first place.

They will have occupied that position for the remainder of the season. Over a period of six months and 162 games, the Twins were in second place for five games and never by more than a half-game in the standings.

Which is amazing, considering how grumpy a high percentage of fans — and even a septuagenarian sportswriter — were for long stretches of the summer, which officially ended at 1:50 a.m. Saturday.

Those strikeouts. Those failures with the bases loaded. Byron Buxton not hitting or playing in center field. Carlos Correa rapping into endless double plays, which shouldn't be happening with a player found at the Dior counter.

There were also followers dedicated to bashing manager Rocco Baldelli for pitching moves ("Why did he take out Sonny?"), even as the Twins spent all season getting more innings from their starters than a huge majority of teams.

And any of you Pollyannas that wanted to aim accolades toward the Twins, we responded with, "This has been foisted upon us by the AL Central," or some such thing.

Then, on Aug. 15, there was a shocking occurrence. Royce Lewis, with only 38 big-league games after being drafted No. 1 overall in 2017, came back from his latest injury to take over third base — and soon it was OK to put aside the crabbiness, even to take a halfhearted leap toward the Twins' bandwagon.

Twins followers had liked what they saw of Lewis in previous stays — 12 games before a season-ending knee injury in 2022 and 26 games earlier this year before a quad injury.

The Lewis personality had come through: only determination and no self-pity after back-to-back seasons lost to knee surgeries. A fondness for the game that came off as genuine, not cliched.

The potential seemed there for Lewis to become the Twins equivalent of the Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards — a joyous presence to fill a void that existed with the fan base.

All it was going to take was production. And then Lewis offered just that in astounding fashion: four grand slams in 18 games, the first player in MLB history to hit four in such a concise period of time.

Over a 32-game stretch, from mid-August until this Tuesday in Cincinnati, Lewis hit 11 home runs, knocked in 37 runs and had an OPS of .992.

Then he took an awkward swing, came up with a limp and had to leave the game. The Twins announced Friday that it was a Grade 1 hamstring pull.

Later, Baldelli said called it "Grade 1-plus," and there was no one with the Twins — including Lewis — willing to state that he would be back for the start of a three-game playoff series Oct. 3.

The Twins went about their business Friday night, officially wrapping up the AL Central behind Pablo López. And Willi Castro filled in admirably at third base again.

No matter. I'm of the opinion it's hard to overstate what Lewis has done for the public's view of the Twins over these latest five weeks in the lineup.

How can a hitter improve himself as much as Lewis has when his previous three seasons have been lost to COVID-19 and then two knee surgeries?

"I think that's actually a heck of a conversation more so than it is a question," Baldelli said. "I missed over a year twice … it takes some time before you even feel like a baseball player again.

"This game is played every day, and you have to perform every single day. You fall into a nice routine, and Royce hadn't been able to do that for such a long time that his return is almost shocking.

"We say impressive, but it's shockingly good is what it is."

Lewis will be missed … and the hope is, not for long.