Royce Lewis’ three-run homer in eighth lifts Twins to 4-3 victory over Blue Jays

Royce Lewis prefers not to utter the s-word — slump. But he hasn’t produced at the plate recently, to the point that manager Rocco Baldelli sat him out of a game recently to give him a mental break.

Sometimes it takes just one swing to break out of whatever he wants to call his recent troubles. Maybe his go-ahead home run in the eighth inning Sunday at Target Field was the moment he needed.

Lewis’ go-ahead, three-run shot to left field propelled the Twins to a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. It was the infielder’s first home run since Aug. 12. It enabled the Twins to take two of three games in the series, their first series victory in nearly two weeks, and sent them on a road trip to Tampa Bay and Kansas City on a positive note after a difficult 3-6 homestand.

Ryan Jeffers and Austin Martin reached base with eighth-inning singles before Lewis’ big blast. It made a winner out of Griffin Jax, who gave up two runs in the top of the inning with a very not-Jax-like performance.

The Twins trailed from the first inning, when Ernie Clement homered against Bailey Ober, until the seventh, when they took advantage of a throwing error by Toronto third baseman Luis De Los that enabled Lewis to advance from first to third. Lewis scored on Carlos Santana’s groundout, tying the score at 1-1.

BOXSCORE: Twins 4, Toronto 3

MLB standings

But Toronto returned serve in the eighth inning against Jax, who issued two walks, gave up a single to Clement and hit Leo Jimenez with the bases loaded to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead. Another run scored on Joey Loperfido’s groundout.

Ober was dominant, striking out eight over five innings. His only mistake was a fastball to Clement in the first inning that was launched into the seats in left. Ober recovered to retire 10 of the next 11 Blue Jays.