Baltimore Orioles at Minnesota Twins

It’s never really been in doubt: For the Twins to be at their best, Royce Lewis needs to be at his best. And there’s good news: Lewis appears to be as close to his best as he’s been in a very long time. Lewis smoked two doubles, continuing a torrid stretch at the plate, as Minnesota rallied from two early deficits to beat the Orioles, 7-5, at Target Field on Wednesday. It was the Twins’ first series win since before the Trade Deadline, and it temporarily pulled them to within one game of the third American League Wild Card spot. For Lewis, it was the continuation of the best stretch he’s had at the plate in more than a year. He has three consecutive multi-hit games and five in his past six. He’s ripped eight extra-base hits in 11 games in August, and since July 9, he’s 33-for-105 (.314) with a .562 slugging percentage. When you think about what Lewis did as a breakout star in 2022, '23, and early in '24, this is the kind of performance you’re thinking of. “He’s taking really good swings,” said manager Derek Shelton. “We’ve talked about it before. We’ve talked about the aggressiveness, we’ve talked about the balls that he’s swinging and fouling off: He’s right on them, and that’s really good to see.” It was a breakout game throughout a Twins lineup that has scuffled for much of the second half. Josh Bell and Alan Roden had three hits each, and every starter but Ryan Kreidler had at least one run or an RBI. But there are few players in Minnesota's lineup, or anywhere really, who have the kind of upside potential that Lewis presents. And after seeming to be at sea for much of the past two seasons, the former No. 1 overall Draft pick has very much found a groove lately. Virtually all of his underlying hitting metrics are trending upward. Entering Wednesday's game, Lewis’ average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, barrel rate and expected slugging percentage are all up since July 1.