Royce Lewis’ few hits have frequently been timely for Twins

Royce Lewis looked around the Twins clubhouse for possible answers as he considered the question after Sunday’s game.

“Who led the Twins in RBIs this month?” Lewis repeated. “Hmm. … [Matt] Wallner? It feels like he hit a bunch of home runs.”

He did, seven in all, but nope — Wallner drove in 13 runs in August.

“Oh, [Luke] Keaschall — yeah, he’s got a lot of clutch hits and homers,” Lewis decided.

He did, including four homers. But his fifth-inning RBI on Sunday gave him 17 in August, one behind the team leader.

“Must be Buck [Byron Buxton], then. Yeah,” Lewis said of the star, who homered six times in August, including a two-run shot Sunday to give him 11 RBI.

That’s three strikes. The answer, which clearly never dawned on the Twins third baseman, is Lewis himself. A pair of two-out RBI singles in Sunday’s 7-2 victory over San Diego gave him 18 RBI for the month, tops on the Twins and the third-highest single-month total of his career.

He might have a point there. Lewis collected only 20 hits this month in 98 at-bats, a .204 average that came with 30 strikeouts, too. But five hits were doubles and four were homers, and no other Twins player accounted for more runs driven in. Even more clutch: 12 of those 18 RBI came with two outs.

“Of course I think about trying to get the run in anytime I get a chance. I want those every day,” said Lewis, who had 20 RBI in 53 games this season coming into August. “I have high confidence and standards for myself. If I’m not living up to them, you know, it bothers me. I don’t care what the stats say — of late, I’m not playing up to my standards.”

MLB active rosters can expand from 26 to 28 players Monday, but opportunities for starting pitchers on the Twins are contracting soon, with Pablo López and David Festa headed back from injury. So the Twins chose to option righthander Mick Abel back to Class AAA St. Paul after Sunday’s game, with the obvious intent of giving him regular starts in September.

Abel, acquired in the trade that sent Jhoan Duran to Philadelphia, started a game vs. the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 23 and pitched an inning in relief vs. the Padres on Saturday night, and neither assignment went well. The 24-year-old former first-round pick gave up 12 runs, 11 earned, in four innings between the two games, an ERA of 24.75. He struck out three and walked three.

He pitched exceptionally well for the Saints in three starts after being traded, posting a 1.76 ERA and holding hitters to a .140 batting average over 15⅓ innings. He struck out 23.

A day later, Ryan Fitzgerald said his pitching arm felt fine. Shows you the benefit of averaging 55 mph with your fastball.

Fitzgerald, a 31-year-old rookie utility infielder, was called upon to get the Twins’ final three outs of Saturday’s 12-3 blowout loss to the Padres. He succeeded beyond his own expectations, retiring Luis Arraez on a popup and Mason McCoy and Ryan O’Hearn on hard-hit fly balls — all in nine pitches.

“If I can do it, anybody can,” Fitzgerald said with a laugh.

Four other pitchers faced the Padres in that game, and each of them gave up at least one run. Which is how he got the chance — once the Twins’ deficit reached eight runs, manager Rocco Baldelli was allowed to use a position player on the mound. It’s an assignment that Jonah Bride, Willi Castro and Kody Clemens have already fulfilled this year, saving innings from an overworked bullpen.

“We were trying to figure out if I was going to go in for Royce or Brooks [Lee], somebody to pinch hit for, so I was getting ready for that,” Fitzgerald said. “Then [bench coach] Jayce [Tingler] said, ‘Hey, you’re probably going to pitch, so go warm up.’ I went in the cages and got a couple of throws in.”

“Sophomore year of high school was my last outing,” said the graduate of Fenwick High in suburban Chicago. “I couldn’t throw offspeed for a strike, so I was like, ‘I’m done with this.’ “

Turns out, he wasn’t. Fitzgerald said he was disappointed that he didn’t get a strikeout, though he kept the ball from his first out and planned to ask Arraez to sign it.

But it sounds like he wouldn’t mind another chance, if the opportunity arose.

“In the moment, it’s fun. Obviously it [isn’t good] to come in when you’re losing like that, so you don’t want to be too happy about it,” Fitzgerald said. “But I guess the last position I need to play in pro ball now is catcher.

“Hopefully that doesn’t happen.”

• Lynx point guards Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman threw out ceremonial first pitches, a day after their team clinched the top seed in the WNBA playoffs.