Lewis’ 2 HRs attach ‘web’ in Twins; hurry ends at 18

MINNEAPOLIS — It spanned 19 years and 18 games, three managers and a handful of native icons, from Torii Hunter to Joe Mauer to Byron Buxton. And now, at prolonged final, the Minnesota Twins’ postseason shedding skedaddle — the longest in North American men’s legitimate sports activities — is over, courtesy of a stirring 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of their American League Wild Card Series on Tuesday.

It resulted in becoming fashion.

With Royce Lewis, the damage-marred dilapidated No. 1 total opt, recuperating from a hamstring strain real in time to crush two dwelling runs. With some of their most unheralded gamers — center fielder Michael Taylor, first baseman Donovan Solano, relief pitcher Griffin Jax — turning in mountainous performances. With their star chief, Carlos Correa, making a sport-changing defensive play. And with their original ace, Pablo Lopez, embracing the magnitude of the skedaddle and pitching care for a person hell-crooked on ending it.

“This sport intended loads to us for many, many causes,” Lopez said after conserving the Blue Jays’ decorated lineup to one trot in 5⅔ innings on an overcast afternoon. “We real wanted to place an waste to one thing that used to be very sad to our beloved fans. Our fans had been so mighty to us — they make stronger us, they root for us no topic the declare. It felt ethical. The fashion I see it now, we’ve a brand original skedaddle going.”

Lewis used to be drafted first total out of excessive faculty six years ago, however relief-to-relief ACL tears halted growth that used to be otherwise regular. The 2023 season marked his step forward within the well-known leagues, however an indirect strain interrupted it midseason and a hamstring strain nearly ended it down the stretch.

Lewis, 24, suffered the latter damage Sept. 19 and spent the following two weeks struggling with to advance relief when the games mattered most. He left Monday’s off-day workout unsure if he would be within the lineup in Game 1, maintaining a compression sleeve on his tender left leg all night to give himself the most classic chance. But he awoke feeling greater Tuesday and deemed himself ready to originate at designated hitter.

In his first at-bat, Lewis ran the count rotund against Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman, who said his patented splitter “wasn’t carrying the zone as mighty as I would’ve loved.” Lewis then turned on an inner-corner fastball and lined it over the left-arena fence to give Minnesota an early two-trot lead. Two innings later, he bought a 3-1 fastball down the center and lofted it over the fence in ethical-center, giving the Twins a 3-0 advantage and becoming the third player to homer in his first two career postseason plate appearances, joining Evan Longoria (2008) and Gary Gaetti (1987).

“That’s a God thing,” Lewis said. “I am real blessed to be fragment of it. It felt care for I was blacked out all the game. My coronary heart used to be racing.”

Lewis returned to the dugout after his 2d dwelling trot and made it a order see round on the Target Arena crowd of 38,450, as energetic and frenzied as he had ever experienced them. He used to be following the recommendation of Mauer, who instructed him in a textual order material message to “take it in.”

“All these fans — they truly stepped up for us, man,” Lewis said. “It used to be particular.”

Talked about Twins manager Rocco Baldelli: “The ballpark on the present time, I beget, used to be to take into accounta good illustration on the present time of how the neighborhood feels about us and what we enact. I believed the place used to be going to split initiate and soften. Of route. It used to be out of this universe on the market on the realm. The fans took over the game. They helped us web on the present time.”

The Blue Jays’ offense, underwhelming during the season, threatened during. But never more so than on the originate of the eighth inning, down about a runs, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lining the first pitch into the ethical-center-arena gap for a leadoff double. The remainder of the center of Toronto’s portray would express, however Jax, the Twins’ setup man, retired three batters on seven pitches, six of which produced strikeouts of Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio.

The Twins’ defense otherwise took over. Taylor, regarded as one of the necessary classic defensive center fielders within the game, dove to web a shallow flit ball from Alejandro Kirk within the 2d inning and leaped against the fence to eradicate what could per chance had been a sport-tying double from Matt Chapman within the sixth. The sport ended with Solano diving to snare a laborious grounder off the bat of George Springer, however it undoubtedly modified with a heads-up play from Correa.

With two on and two outs within the fourth, a chopper snuck underneath the glove of third irascible beget-in Jorge Polanco, prompting the immediate Bichette to strive to get from 2d irascible. Correa — standing shut to 2d when the play started and harassed by plantar fasciitis heading into the postseason — ranged to his ethical, retrieved the ball and made an off-balance throw dwelling to nail Bichette, seemingly altering the momentum of the game.

“That wants to be confirmed in every single place over and over,” Baldelli said, later adding: “Whenever you occur to care for gazing the greatest gamers making the greatest performs within the greatest games, then you for dash ought to mild trot stumble on that play. It used to be amazing.”

Lopez spoke Monday about how the Twins would use the shedding skedaddle as “motivation and gasoline” to help raise greater moments for the locals to beget to take into accounta good time. He dwelling the tone the next afternoon, when he arrived within the jersey of Twins story Johan Santana, the fellow Venezuelan he grew up idolizing. Hours later, he grew to alter into the first Twins pitcher since Santana to web a postseason sport — spanning nearly two decades.

“Some folks think in fate, some folks think that the things we enact on the present time force what we enact the next day,” Lopez said. “But every so typically things line up too completely to plod up on these alternatives.”