Royce Lewis hits the ball hard, but others hit it harder. He hits the ball far, too, but others hit it farther. But when it comes to hitting the ball out of the park, very few have done it better than the Twins third baseman.
Heading into a giant, four-game homestand this weekend against Cleveland at Target Field, Lewis, 25, is hitting a home run every 8.93 at-bats, better than anyone else in baseball this season.
And while his young career has been waylaid by two knee surgeries and, just this season, a 58-game layoff because of a quad injury, his 31 home runs in 105 major league games trail only six players through the same number of games: Mark McGwire (39), Cody Bellinger (35), Pete Alonso (34), Rudy York (34) and Gary Sánchez (33).
“I’m not trying to hit a lot of home runs, I swear to God,” Lewis said this week. “I love them. I would love to try. But whenever I do, I strike out or something. Whenever I’m not trying, it’s always the best-case scenario.”
Over his past six games, Lewis has three homers, two doubles, 11 RBIs and a 1.217 OPS.
In the age of analytics, it’s natural to look for numbers that explain Lewis’ penchant for hitting the ball out of park, and they probably do — somewhere (perhaps here). But whatever it is, it isn’t obvious.
He’s a solid 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, but he’s not Aaron Judge (6-7, 282). His max exit velocity off the bat this season is 110.1 mph, 11 mph slower than major league leader Oneil Cruz, according to mlb.com’s Statcast. And his 88.8 mph average ranks 206th.
Lewis doesn’t know any of this. While he clearly understands the mechanics of a swing, the only analytics he’s really interested in are those related to pitchers. Those are the ones that help him prepare to hit baseballs, however far and however fast.
“I probably have the slowest bat speed in the league,” Lewis said.
He doesn’t, it’s 74.3 mph on average, according to Statcast, 58th in baseball. And while he has hit four homers farther than 420 feet this season, the longest of them 435 feet off Colorado’s Nick Mears on June 10 at Target Field, nine major leaguers have hit home runs of longer than 470 feet this season.
Still, Lewis’ average of a home run every 12.32 at-bats in his first 105 games ranks second to only to Nelson Cruz (12.30) in franchise history going all the way back to the Washington Senators’ first season in 1901.
One constant for Lewis is his approach.
“I’m trying to drive the ball through the wall — like, hitting it two or three times,” he said. “It’s like, if you had two or three balls in front of you, I want to be able to hit all three of those on the same at-bat. I feel like for anyone, I mean, that’s the reason that Jose Altuve can hit home runs. When you stay through the ball, they generate all the power. I don’t have to have a ton of bat speed or anything like that.”
In the first inning last Friday at Target Field, Lewis walked to the plate to face Chicago White Sox pitcher Davis Martin a low, inside slider 409 feet into the left field bleachers for a two-run homer that kick-started a 10-2 victory.
“He just hits mistakes,” Martin said afterward, and Lewis won’t argue with him.
“We’re professional hitters; naturally we are gonna hit those without even thinking about it,” he said.
The trick, he added, is to learn to hit the pitches that aren’t mistakes — the ones the pitcher put right where he wanted it, at the right speed, with the right spin. That’s the difference between being a professional hitter and being Judge or Shohei Ohtani, Lewis said.
“The biggest difference is they do one thing better than everyone else,” he said. “The gap is only one thing different.”
But of course, everyone could close that gap, everyone would hit 40 home runs every year. It’s not easy.
But that’s what keeps Lewis going.
“I’m trying to get better every day,” he said. “If I can get 10 things better than I am right now, that would be great. We’re all trying to get better every day. Every player is.”
As for the numbers — the eye-catching home runs and wicket exit velocities — he doesn’t check because basically he doesn’t care. Lewis pointed to a two-run home run he hit off Shota Imanaga as the Twins tried to rally in a 7-3 loss to the Cubs Tuesday at Wrigley Field. It landed in the basket in the left field well, 355 feet from home plate.
“I don’t care; it still says HR in the books,” Lewis said. “So, no one cares if it’s 480 (feet) or 401.”
ROYCE ROLLS
Injuries have limited the plate appearances Twins third baseman Royce Lewis has in parts of three major league seasons, but the small sample size contains some big promise:
31 — Lewis has 31 homers in his first 105 games, which, according MLB researcher Sarah Langs, is fewer than only Mark McGwire (39), Cody Bellinger (35), Pete Alonso (34), Rudy York (34) and Gary Sánchez (33).
8.93 — Entering Thursday’s games, Lewis was hitting a home run this season every 8.93 at-bats, tops in the major leagues.
12.32 — Lewis’ 12.32 at-bats/home run is second in Twins history among players with at least 350 at-bats in a Twins uniform. Only Nelson Cruz (12.30) had a better one.
88 — His 88 RBIs through the first 105 games of his career are the most in franchise history going back to the Washington Senators in 1901.
Source: Minnesota Twins
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