Twins beat White Sox to trim magic number to seven; Royce Lewis hits another grand slam

CHICAGO – As Royce Lewis rewrites record books, the statistics are unfathomable. His penchant to hit grand slams is almost incomprehensible.

No matter where Lewis hits in the Twins lineup, the moment always finds him.

It found him again Friday. Lewis stepped into the batter's box with the bases loaded in the second inning and he blasted his fourth grand slam of the season to carry the Twins to a 10-2 victory over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Twins' magic number to clinch a division title dropped to seven.

No Twin has ever hit more grand slams in a season than Lewis. And he did it in 54 games. In fact, all four slams came within the past three weeks.

"I'm absolutely amazed," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "I've never seen anybody do anything like this in my life, ever, on any level, high school baseball, college, anything."

There is a different energy when Lewis comes to the plate with the bases loaded. Bailey Ober said players were telling each other, "All right, watch this. Watch this."

Lewis, whose first career homer was a grand slam last year, is already tied for eighth place on the Twins' all-time list with five career slams. Sixty-two years of franchise history and Lewis is accomplishing stupefying feats.

"It's just surreal right now, watching him do his thing," Ober said. "He loves this game so much and you can see it when he's out there."

The Twins opened the second inning with singles from Willi Castro and Matt Wallner. Castro attempted to score on a ground ball from Ryan Jeffers, but he was thrown out at the plate by a couple of steps. With two runners on base and two outs, Edouard Julien drew a six-pitch walk to bring up Lewis.

Once Lewis reached a 2-0 count against Chicago righthander Jesse Scholtens, he admitted grand slam entered his mind. Scholtens fed him a 93-mph fastball over the plate in a 3-1 count and Lewis drilled it into the left field seats, a no-doubter that traveled 397 feet. Lewis flashed "5" with one of his hands as he looked at his teammates in the dugout.

"You almost can't believe what you're seeing as it's playing out," Baldelli said. "I mean, this is Major League Baseball. This is not just someone throwing some BP to you and you're just taking home run hacks."

It took 66 career games for Lewis to reach five grand slams, which tied him with Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer and Don Mincher on the Twins' all-time list.

His four grand slams this season all came within his past 18 games. There are only six players in MLB history who hit more than four grand slams in a season: Travis Hafner (six, 2006), Don Mattingly (six, 1987), Albert Pujols (five, 2009), Richie Sexson (five, 2006), Jim Gentile (five, 1961) and Ernie Banks (five, 1955).

The 24-year-old Lewis isn't afraid of enjoying the moment. He missed nearly two full seasons because of knee injuries. His homer Friday was special because his parents were in the crowd. They initially planned to visit him in Seattle after the All-Star break, but they had to postpone the trip because he was on the injured list.

"They don't come very often, so it's extra special," Lewis said. "Fun to hit two homers in front of them [this week]. Hopefully, we can keep doing some more stuff."

The Twins added onto their lead in the third inning when Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson booted a ground ball from Carlos Correa, then overran a fly ball to allow Correa to score. In the fourth inning, Lewis started a two-out rally with a seven-pitch walk. Two batters later, Max Kepler lined an RBI single to center. The Twins added four runs in the ninth inning for the second consecutive night.

Ober looked sharp in his first start with the Twins since Aug. 27. He threw a first-pitch strike to 16 of his 20 batters. He didn't issue any walks. Elvis Andrus ended his shutout with a two-run homer in the fifth inning, an at-bat that started with a 3-0 count.