In trying season at plate, Twins’ Royce Lewis is battling mental side of baseball, too

DENVER — Royce Lewis waited patiently for Kyle Freeland to throw a fastball in the strike zone Friday night, and when he got one, he was ready. Lewis whipped his bat at it and sent it flying, 104.5 mph toward center field.

When Lewis hits a ball that hard, the rewards are usually big. He had been 10-for-14 (.714) this season when he did so, with two home runs and four doubles.

Make it 10-for-15.

Colorado Rockies second baseman Ryan Ritter was standing in the way of Lewis’ second-inning line drive and snagged the ball before it could reach the outfield. But what happened next might be more important, and certainly more telling, than the unfortunate at-bat in the Twins’ 6-4 loss Friday: Lewis focused on the result, and not the process that produced it.

His subpar season has infected his mental state now, in other words.

“That was pretty much exactly what I wanted to do. I [should] walk away from that like, ‘All right, I did my job. I hit the ball hard, right up the middle,’“ Lewis said in a 15-minute bare-my-soul discussion with reporters before Saturday night’s game. “But now I’ve become so results-oriented because, for example, I’m not in the lineup today. I figure it’s probably because I went 0-for-3.”

Worse than that, in the eighth inning with the Twins trailing by two, manager Rocco Baldelli sent Trevor Larnach, a lefthanded hitter, up to pinch-hit for Lewis against Rockies righthander Victor Vodnik. It’s only the third time in his career that Lewis has been called back from the on-deck circle in a clutch situation.

“It’s been harder for me mentally, but in the past, I’ve done a really good job of [saying], ‘Oh, if I line out, it’s OK. It’s part of the process, part of the game,’“ Lewis said. “But this year, it seems like if I don’t, [they’re] quick to pull the trigger on you.”

Lewis recognizes he’s not the same hitter he was in the first three seasons of his career, and it’s understandable he’s confused and discouraged by his injury-hampered and slump-ridden 2025 season. Entering Saturday, he was batting only .211 with two home runs in 43 games. His OPS+, in which 100 is an “average” major league hitter, stood at 58, after he recorded 143, 149 and 107 in his first three seasons. He started the season 0-for-15 and later endured an 0-for-32 stretch.

“I didn’t realize how much injuries have taken a toll on my body. This is the first year it’s really affected me,” said the 26-year-old third baseman, who has missed eight weeks with a hamstring injury. “I definitely can see in video [my swing] looks different. ‘That’s not Royce.’ ... It doesn’t look the same as a year ago, two years ago. My body is compensating for something, it seems like.”

The Twins are working on restoring that swing, hitting coach Matt Borgschulte said.

“There is a little bit of length on the back part of his swing that’s come through — on the back side as he starts,” Borgschulte said. “He’s just missing some pitches. He’s working on that, and he’s getting better with it. When you make an adjustment with a guy, sometimes it comes through right away and sometimes it takes time to get back where it needs to be.”

Getting his confidence back, his focus on hitting the ball hard, that’s an important priority, Baldelli said.

“I can appreciate his candidness and his openness to say that, because I think he knows … that controlling the things that you have control over and doing those things well every day, consistently — that’s how you always get back on track,” Baldelli said. “Royce is not the first hitter, when going through some struggles, to look at the big screen and start thinking about numbers and their stats. And he’s not alone. Thinking about your swing and your approach, not your numbers, that’s the answer. It’s not always the easiest thing to do, though”

But that line drive that bothered Lewis, that’s a good sign, Baldelli said.

“That might have been one of his best swings of the season, to be very honest. That’s what you want to see from a guy,” the manager said. “And that’s how you get back on track. You know, working up the middle, hitting low, hard line drives all over the field.”

Kyle Gibson, drafted by the Twins in 2009 and inserted into their starting rotation almost exactly four years later, announced his retirement Thursday after a 13-year major league career.

Gibson spent seven seasons with the Twins and won 10 games or more in five of them, including a 13-7 season, with a 4.84 ERA, in Baldelli’s first year with the Twins and Gibson’s last.

“Hell of a run. He had a great career, he really did. He was the definition of consistency,” Baldelli said of the righthander who also played for the Texas Rangers (with whom he became an All-Star in 2021), Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles and St. Louis Cardinals. “He gave his team a chance to win games almost every time he took the mound for years. That’s what you’re looking for. And he was a good teammate. He did a lot of things for the organizations he played for.”

Despite drawing 10 walks, the St. Paul Saints were blown out by the Bats, losing 15-4 in Louisville. The Saints allowed four home runs.