Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis emerge from slumps to power Twins past Angels

Welcome back, Brooks Lee. Glad to see you again, Royce Lewis.

And who’s that on deck? Byron Buxton?

The Twins’ young infielders, both wrestling through maddeningly long hitless slumps, each provided a two-run double on Wednesday, leading the Twins to their second straight victory over the Angels, 6-4 at Target Field.

The win allowed the Twins to stave off any encroachment by Boston, Detroit or Seattle, and gain a game on the Royals in the chase for wild-card spots.

Even better, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli announced afterward that the team plans to activate Byron Buxton on Friday after being out for a month with a sore right hip.

“It’s great for everyone, because it’s just a glimmer of hope, no matter how we were feeling or what was going on in the past,” Lewis said. “Looking toward the future, to have guys coming back, it just gives us hope.”

As does the prospect of ramped-up contributions from Lee and Lewis.

Lee, the Twins’ fill-in shortstop, ended his 0-for-19 week at the best possible moment on Wednesday, capping a three-run fourth inning by doubling home Trevor Larnach and Willi Castro. That pair of runs, on a line drive that traveled 395 feet before bouncing just in front of the bullpens in left-center, followed Castro’s single up the middle — breaking an 0-for-16 stretch of his own and driving in his first run of September.

Lewis, meanwhile, had showed his frustration by trying to bunt his way on with two outs in the first inning.

“I don’t know where the bunt came from,” Baldelli said. “But he had some good at-bats after that.”

He did, first by ending his 0-for-22 slump with a leadoff single in the sixth inning, though the rally didn’t amount to much. An inning later, though, with the Angels trailing by just 4-3?

Different story.

With the bases loaded, Lewis cracked a 1-0 sinker to the fence in left field and umpires initially signaled that Lewis had hit his sixth career grand slam. But a video review showed the ball bounced off the padding atop the wall and was in play, and Lewis was sent back to second base with a two-run double.

“That was a great swing. You can always feel Royce when he feels good about what’s going on. There’s a lot of good energy coming off him,” Baldelli said. “That was one of those nice Royce moments.”

Along with Matt Wallner’s third home run of the past week, a solo job in the first inning that carried to the back of the Twins’ bullpen, 435 feet away, the Twins’ offense allowed Baldelli to prioritize this game, with the season down to its final 16.

“There is urgency. We’ve got to find ways to win any way possible. Today it meant going to the bullpen, and going to them early,” Baldelli said. “Yes, there’s going to be urgency all the way through this.”

Baldelli pulled starting pitcher Zebby Matthews after just 61 pitches over 3⅓ innings, unwilling to gamble that the rookie righthander could successfully maneuver through the top of the Angels’ batting order a third time. Matthews allowed only two runs, both on solo home runs — one by Taylor Ward to lead off the game, then by rookie Nolan Schanuel to lead off the third inning.

But with a day off on Thursday, Baldelli broke some of his usual patterns. He signaled for Cole Sands in the fourth inning, the earliest Sands has been used in more than a month. He brought in Jorge Alcalá to finish off the fifth inning, which he did with one pitch: Mickey Moniak was thrown out trying to steal.

Alcalá remained in for the sixth, and surrendered Jordyn Adams’ first career home run to temporarily pull the Angels within a run.

But Griffin Jax, with more than a dozen family members in the announced crowd of 15,660, retired the Angels on eight pitches in the seventh, so Baldelli gave him the eighth, too. Jax needed only 12 more pitches to complete his first six-out assignment since July 4, 2022 — 173 appearances ago.