Twins lose to Yankees 5-1 as Royce Lewis homers in his return to prevent shutout

NEW YORK – There were two unstoppable forces at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. Royce Lewis, known for his flair for the dramatic, homered in his return after missing the last 58 games, and the New York Yankees continued their one-sided domination over the Twins.

Lewis, who turns 25 on Wednesday, has a knack for delivering when he returns to action. He homered in his first game last year after recovering from a torn ligament in his knee. He homered in his first two postseason at-bats after a stint on the injured list. He homered in his first at-bat this year.

Perhaps homers are the new expectation.

“We lost the game today, so it’s hard to start gushing about things,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after a 5-1 loss, “but I’ve never heard of or seen anyone do what he did today and he’s done three, four other times in his career. I’ve never seen anybody do that ever. Not even close.”

Lewis blasted a solo homer to left field in the seventh inning against Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle. He’s still batting 1.000 this year, drawing walks in his other two plate appearances. He had a homer and a single in his two at-bats on Opening Day before he partially tore his right quad running the bases.

When Lewis was told people expected a homer from him, he said, “That’s nice of them.”

“I think I’ve raised the bar of the expectations, but we’ve got to normalize those a little bit more,” he said. “I just go out there and have as much fun as I can. Today was a good example of how much I missed the game. … You just crave it. You want it more. It’s just like In-’N-Out when I was a kid, I wanted it every night.”

For the Twins, there wasn’t much offense outside of Lewis. Luis Gil, a former Twins farmhand traded in 2018, pitched six scoreless innings against his former organization. The Twins are winless in four games against the Yankees within the past month, outscored 19-2.

The Twins traded Gil for outfielder Jake Cave ahead of the 2018 season. Gil was a 19-year-old who hadn’t pitched at a level higher than the Dominican Summer League. Cave, who spent five seasons with the Twins but never played in more than 91 games, didn’t have a spot on a crowded Yankees roster.

Typically, it’s the type of trade that ends up as a footnote. The way Gil developed with the Yankees is making it unforgettable. Gil, who lowered his ERA to 1.82, was named the American League’s Pitcher of the Month and Rookie of the Month for May.

“You see a lot of good stuff in the game,” Baldelli said. “He’s better than most.”

BOXSCORE: New York Yankees 5, Twins 1

The Twins totaled only one hit against Gil, a righthander who reached 99 mph with his fastball and struck out six. Christian Vázquez hit a one-out double off the wall in right field in the third inning, but he was stranded after Gil induced a groundout and struck out Carlos Correa on a called third strike. Correa struck out four times in a game for the first time in his career.

Bailey Ober permitted three hits in five innings, but a couple of inches turned a potential scoreless outing into one where he gave up three runs.

In the second inning, Ober watched a first-pitch cutter to Gleyber Torres fly to the first row of the short porch in right field for a 349-foot solo homer. The ball deflected off leaping Max Kepler’s outstretched glove and rolled into the stands.

With one out and two runners on base in the third inning, Aaron Judge poked an elevated fastball off the end of his bat that landed on the chalk of the right-field line. Judge took a quick glance at his bat to check whether it was broken before racing to second on his two-run double.

Caleb Thielbar surrendered a two-run homer to Giancarlo Stanton in the eighth inning, spoiling any potential late-game drama. Since 2002, the Twins own a 42-105 record against the Yankees.