Twins starting the season with a power surge

Twins manager Paul Molitor believes his offense is able to vary its methods of attack.

He sees a group of hitters who can manufacture runs as well as inflict damage with one swing. A team that can steal bases and be much more than station-to-station.

"We have more than one way to score," Molitor said, "which I like a lot."

While there have been some signs of that during the first week of the season, there also are some signs that they can just bash their way through the summer — if summer ever arrives.

After belting three home runs in Thursday's 4-2 home-opening victory over Seattle, the Twins pulled into a tie for second in the major leagues with 12 long balls over their six games. Only the Chicago White Sox, with 14, had hit more.

Brian Dozier has four homers, tying for the league lead. This is the same man who hit 42 in 2016, when he set the AL record for homers by a second baseman, so his start might be more than a small sample size case.

And, after hitting a two-run shot in the sixth inning Thursday off the Mariners' James Paxton, Twins third baseman Miguel Sano offered a simple explanation of what can happen if an opposing pitcher makes a mistake and gives the Twins something to hit.

"If they make it," Sano said, "they pay."

And the Twins have had a powerful start depite getting no home runs from free-agent acquisition Logan Morrison, who belted 38 last season for Tampa Bay. He has started off 1-for-15 with the Twins, who had an off day Friday before resuming the Mariners series Saturday.

Morrison gives the middle of the order more thump.

"Most definitely," center fielder Byron Buxton said when asked if he thought the Twins are a bigger power threat this year. "They got some acquisitions to come in and help us out with that. We are just going out there, having fun and doing our thing. The way we are supposed to."

Dozier, Sano, and Eddie Rosario each hit at least 27 home runs last season. Buxton, whose blazing speed makes him an inside-the-park home run threat, hit 16, including 11 over the final two months of the season. Max Kepler hit 19. Even Eduardo Escobar hit 21, pressed into everyday service when Sano missed the last several weeks of the season because of a shin injury.

With Morrison joining and the younger players gaining more experience, first baseman Joe Mauer might be the only starter who doesn't have a shot to hit 20 homers this year. As baseball embraces the launch-angle movement, the Twins are one of the model teams, able to field power all over the field and throughout the batting order.

"We've got a lot of guys," Molitor said. "You can guesstimate how many guys have a chance to get 15 [home runs] or more. It is pretty high."

The Twins have homered in each of their past five games, hitting at least three home runs in three of them, including Thursday's. They hit four homers in a 7-0 rout at Baltimore on April 1. They had seven games all of 2017 in which they hit at least four homers — six of those coming after the All-Star break, when they surged to an AL wild-card berth.

Of the Twins' 12 home runs, 11 have been solo shots. They are showing what they can do to a baseball, but they aren't exactly making Molitor look like managing great Earl Weaver, who loved the three-run homer.

"We're hitting some homers, but we really know how to manufacture runs, getting guys over, whatever it is," Dozier said. "We know how to do that, which good teams do."

True, but the way they are doing it now — by hitting balls over the fence — is working fine.