Royce Lewis is introducing himself to the baseball world with a bang.
The Minnesota Twins rookie exploded onto the scene in Tuesday’s playoff opener against the Toronto Blue Jays. Lewis opened up the scoring in the first inning, getting to Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman for a towering two-run shot to left field.
The 24-year-old celebrated his first-ever playoff home run (in his first-ever playoff at-bat, no less) in style. He uncorked a smooth one-handed bat flip and turned to celebrate with the Minnesota dugout as he went up the first-base line.
That wasn’t all for Lewis though. During Lewis’ very next at-bat in the third inning, he told the Blue Jays, “You seem to be alright. Here’s another.” Once again, Lewis took Gausman deep, this time to right to make it 3-0 Twins.
Lewis joined some illustrious company with his home runs in his first two career playoff plate appearances. He became only the third player in AL/NL history to do so along with Evan Longoria (2008) and Gary Gaetti (1987).
The third baseman Lewis, who was DH’ing in Game 1, quietly had a strong 2023 season, hitting .309 with 15 home runs and 52 RBI. But he hurt his hamstring in mid-September and had not played for Minnesota since … until Tuesday.
Needless to say, Lewis’ hamstring looks just fine, and the Twins (who held on to win the game 3-1) look just fine too.
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