Trevor Larnach’s hot streak for Twins has been heavy on singles, but that’s OK

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Over his last nine games, Trevor Larnach had batted — “I don’t want to know,” he interrupted. “Whatever it is, I don’t want to know.”

OK then. If you are Trevor Larnach, stop reading and put the paper down now. For those of us who aren’t superstitious, though, let’s acknowledge that Larnach was 15-for-36 heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, a .417 average as part of the hottest stretch of his career.

Here’s the thing, though: Fourteen of those 15 hits were singles.

So, are his results good or bad?

“I mean, this game, it can be really tough finding positives, so it can go both ways,” Larnach said. “You can say, well, they’re all singles. I’m not slugging, and that’s not good. But you can say I’m hitting the ball hard, and just not having much luck. They’ve been right at outfielders, not getting any deeper.”

Yes, the randomness of baseball strikes again. As Larnach notes, “The only thing I can control is my swing and the decision-making” about when to swing. “Whether I’m hitting singles, doubles, triples, home runs — that’s out of my control.”

His manager, however, is not so conflicted about Larnach’s production. Larnach had gotten on base at a .436 clip over this stretch, driven in six runs and scored four himself.

“He’s using the whole field really well. He’s not trying to do too much. He’s not getting big. But he’s hitting balls hard,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “As his approach has matured over time, he has taken fewer big, wild swings, and it’s just been more controlled. He can still catch a ball out front and hit it out of the ballpark, but he’s really just trying to hit a hard line drive somewhere.”

Larnach’s hot bat was cooled off some Tuesday, as he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in the Twins’ 12-2 loss.

Christian Vázquez’s workouts at Target Field this week have “been nothing but positive,” Baldelli said of the veteran catcher, out for a month now after developing an infection in his left shoulder. “It’s been steady progress. I still anticipate him working his way back to being on the field and playing major league games this year. He’s very motivated.”

Byron Buxton returned to the lineup Tuesday night, two days after he was hit by a pitch on his left kneecap in a victory at Kansas City. Buxton hit his 30th home run of the season in that win.

“He’s probably still a little sore, but he’s doing better,” Baldelli said. “He plays through a lot of different things, all these guys do, especially at this point in the season. But we got the thumbs-up. He wants to play. He always wants to play.”