For Twins’ Royce Lewis, it just has to leave the park

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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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Hopkins Joseph Fahnbulleh finishes eight in Olympic men’s 200 meters, Rice Lake’s Kenny Bednarek takes silver for second time

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Joseph Fahnbulleh came up just shy of his pre-Olympic aspirations Thursday in France, finishing eighth in the men’s 200-meter final.

Running for Liberia, the 2019 Hopkins grad finished in 20.15 seconds, more than four tenths off the podium and a few hundredths lower than his semifinal time.

A medal was Fahnbulleh’s stated goal entering the Olympics. He was impressive in his first round and semifinal races but couldn’t quite find top gear on Thursday.

Botswana’s Letsile Tobogo won the race, with Rice Lake’s Kenny Bednarek taking the silver in the event for the second straight Olympics.

Fahnbulleh — who raced the anchor leg of the 4×100 first round for Liberia earlier in the day Thursday — finished ninth in the event at the 2023 World Championships after taking fifth in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. But he did win the event at the African Championships in June — an event in which Tobogo was scheduled to run, but did not start.

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Olympics TV schedule for Friday, Aug. 9

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Here is the Paris Olympics TV schedule for Friday, Aug. 9.

Highlights include men’s and women’s 4×100-meter relays in track and field, women’s basketball semifinals (U.S. vs. Australia 11:30 a.m. EST on Peacock) and U.S. men’s water polo vs. Serbia (8:30 a.m. EST on E!).

Friday, Aug. 9

ARTISTIC SWIMMING

3:45 p.m. EST

E! — Duet: Technical Routine

BASKETBALL

6 a.m. EST

TELEMUNDO — Baloncesto

3 p.m. EST

UNIVERSO — Baloncesto

6 p.m. EST

USA — Women’s Semifinal

8 p.m. EST

USA — Women’s Semifinal

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

3 p.m. EST

USA — Women’s Bronze Final

4:30 p.m. EST

NBC — Women’s Gold Final

11 p.m. EST

NBC — Primetime in Paris (Aug. 9)

BOXING

7:45 a.m. EST

USA — Boxing, Taekwondo

BREAKING

10 a.m. EST

E! — Women’s Qualification

2 p.m. EST

E! — Women’s Final

3 p.m. EST

UNIVERSO — Baloncesto

11 p.m. EST

NBC — Primetime in Paris (Aug. 9)

CANOEING

2:35 a.m. EST

NBC — NBC Late Night (Aug. 8)

7:15 a.m. EST

E! — Sprint: Canoe, Kayak Finals

CYCLING

3:30 a.m. EST

USA — Women’s Keirin, Men’s Omnium

1 p.m. EST

E! — Men’s Sprint, Women’s Madison

DIVING

4 a.m. EST

E! — Men’s 10m Platform Preliminary

11 a.m.

TELEMUNDO — cos PaClavados

FIELD HOCKEY

11 a.m. EST

USA — Women’s Bronze Final

9:30 p.m. EST

USA — Women’s Gold Final

GOLF

3 a.m. EST

GOLF — Women’s Round 3: Part 1

7 a.m. EST

GOLF — Women’s Round 3: Part 2

HANDBALL

10:30 p.m. EST

USA — Men’s Semifinal

11:30 p.m. EST

USA — Men’s Semifinal

RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS

8 a.m. EST

E! — Group Qualification

Noon EST

UNIVERSO — Gimnasia Ritmica

4 p.m. EST

NBC — Individual All-Around Final

SOCCER

9 a.m. EST

TELEMUNDO — Paris 2024 – Fútbol Femenino Medalla de Bronze
USA — Women’s Bronze Final

Noon EST

TELEMUNDO — Medalla de Oro – Fútbol Masculino
USA — Men’s Gold Final

SPORT CLIMBING

2:35 a.m. EST

NBC — NBC Late Night (Aug. 8)

6:40 a.m. EST

E! — Men’s Combined: Final

SWIMMING

1:30 a.m. EST

USA — Men’s 10km Open Water

8 a.m. EST

TELEMUNDO — Natación

TABLE TENNIS

12:15 p.m. EST

E! — Men’s Team: Bronze Final

4 p.m. EST

USA — Men’s Team: Gold Final

TAEKWONDO

7:45 a.m. EST

USA — Boxing, Taekwondo

TRACK & FIELD

4 a.m. EST

USA — Heats: Men’s & Women’s 4x400m & more

1:30 p.m. EST

NBC — Finals: Men’s & Women’s 4x100m & more

11 p.m. EST

NBC — Primetime in Paris (Aug. 9)

VOLLEYBALL

2 p.m. EST

USA — Men’s Bronze Final

WATER POLO

8:30 a.m. EST

E! — Water Polo & more

5 p.m. EST

E! — Men’s Semifinal

WEIGHTLIFTING

7:15 a.m. EST

USA — Men’s 73kg, Women’s 59kg Finals

WRESTLING

8:30 a.m. EST

USA — M 74kg, 125kg, W 62kg Freestyle Eliminations

5 p.m. EST

USA — Finals: M&W Freestyle 57kg & more

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Child neglect charge against West St. Paul mother dismissed despite fentanyl pills found on kitchen floor

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Prosecutors have dismissed a case against a West St. Paul woman who was charged with child neglect after police responded to a report of shots fired inside her apartment building and found fentanyl pills on her kitchen floor.

The Dakota County Attorney’s office dropped the gross misdemeanor charge against 24-year-old Jazzlynn Jonell Humphrey last month, citing insufficient evidence. In a July 31 court filing, assistant county attorney Amy Schaffer said that upon a review of additional investigation after the criminal complaint was filed, “the State cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the children were present at the residence at a time when the alleged controlled substances and ammunition were present and accessible.”

Humphrey’s attorney did not immediately return a call Thursday for comment.

Police responded to the shots fired call at the apartment building in the 1070 block of Waterloo Avenue just after 7 p.m. Jan. 30. Officers spoke with a man who said he was in his second-floor apartment and heard a loud bang. He said he looked at his ceiling and noticed a small hole. He then saw a bullet lodged in his kitchen floor.

He told officers he believed the bullet was shot from the apartment directly above his, and that he has had noise issues with the person who lives there, the complaint said. He believed a woman, her two young children and a man live in the apartment.

Officers were unable to make contact with anyone in the third-floor apartment. They obtained a search warrant and summoned the SWAT team to assist “due to the serious nature of the call,” the complaint said.

While awaiting to execute the search warrant, Humphrey drove up to the apartment building. She “was not cooperative with officers and provided limited information,” the complaint said.

She said she left her apartment earlier in the afternoon and was just arriving back. She said she lives there with her 3-year-old child and her 2-month-old infant. She denied that a man lives with them.

During the search, officers found a plastic bag of pink pills on the kitchen counter. Blue pills were “scattered across the kitchen floor,” the complaint said. The pink and blue pills both tested positive for fentanyl. A Glock handgun case was on the kitchen table and unspent bullets were found in different areas of the apartment.

“Fentanyl is a highly dangerous drug, especially in close proximity to children,” the complaint said. “Small amounts of fentanyl could cause harm or death to children.”

Humphrey was charged Feb. 1 and released from the Dakota County Jail the same day with no bond amount and several conditions, including no use or possession of firearms or dangerous weapons, no use of alcohol or controlled substances, and random testing.

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