HOUSTON — He had already hit a ball to the warning track, and then cracked his second home run of the season. He even pulled his batting average above .200 for the season.
So what could Royce Lewis do for an encore?
Oh. No.
Lewis, who missed the first six weeks of the season because of a badly strained left hamstring, injured the same muscle while running out a ninth-inning single during the Twins’ 10-3 loss to the Astros on Friday night. Manager Rocco Baldelli and assistant athletic trainer Masa Abe jogged out to check on the third baseman once play was halted, and Lewis left the game with them.
Now what?
“We don’t know a lot right now. He does have a left hamstring strain of some kind. I can’t tell you how severe at this moment,” Baldelli said shortly after the final out. “He actually tested relatively well after the game upon examination in the training room. We’re going to bring him in tomorrow and check him out, see how he comes in.”
Lewis, 26, apparently felt “something” in his hamstring, but it wasn’t a stabbing pain. Given his history, though — Lewis also missed two months in 2024 because of a quad injury — the Twins took no chances.
“A lot of the times you learn a lot just by how the guy shows up the next day, how he can move around, what he’s capable of doing,” Baldelli said. “That will tell us a lot and then we’ll be able to make a decision of some kind as far as the next step, one way or the other. You can learn pretty quickly what he’s going to be capable of and what he’s not. That’s our plan.”
