When Royce Lewis first injured his hamstring running to first base in a spring training game in mid-March, the Twins’ third baseman didn’t think he’d be back at this point.

Not that his absence felt quick — anything but for Lewis, who has become all-too-familiar with rehab process in the early years of his major league career.

Lewis returned on Tuesday after missing the team’s first 35 games of the season. The hamstring strain was the latest in a long line of injuries for him and a frustrating outcome after all the work he had put in on his body in the offseason to avoid a similar fate.

“You need to be smart in general. Whenever I play the game, I’ve just got to play a little bit smarter,” Lewis said. “That’s what some of these other guys I’ve seen play the game at a high level do to be able to play 162. If I had (Royals star) Bobby Witt speed, I think I’d run a lot, but I’m not there anymore with all the injuries. So it’s just play smart whenever I get in the box.”

Lewis played some third base while on his rehab assignment with the Triple-A Saints but has been at designated hitter in each of his first two games back — he went 0 for 4 in his season debut on Tuesday — as the Twins ease him back in.

“I’m tired of being the guy that’s on the IL,” Lewis said. “I think it sucks. Seems like these injury bugs, they just stick on one guy for a while. Hopefully I got mine off.”

New addition

The Twins had a noticeable new addition in their clubhouse when they returned home from their seven-game road trip through Cleveland and Boston.

No, not a new player.

Just a new ping pong table that relievers Jhoan Duran and Jorge Alcala were happily taking advantage of on Wednesday a few hours before the game. On their last road trip, the Twins visited the Guardians, who have a brand new visitors clubhouse. In it, a ping pong table, which was a hit among Twins players.

This table came courtesy of starting pitcher Chris Paddack, who worked with the team’s clubhouse attendants to get the table into the Twins’ home clubhouse.

“Just something different in the clubhouse. I think this game drains us a lot. We’re human beings. We can have fun in life, too,” Paddack said. “Just trying to change the culture a little bit, bringing good vibes.”

As for the best ping pong player in the clubhouse, that’s yet to be determined. Paddack called himself “not outstanding” but “above average,” and said Edouard Julien, who was recently optioned to Triple-A, and shortstop Carlos Correa had a pretty good rally in Cleveland.

“Carlos, I feel like he’s just good at everything, so we were like, ‘No way he’s going to be good at ping pong,’ ” Paddack said. “Sure enough, he’s a freaking beast.”

Briefly

Bailey Ober will start Thursday’s series finale against the Baltimore Orioles, which will start at 12:10 p.m. He is replacing Joe Ryan, who was scheduled to start but is dealing with illness. Ober will be opposed by Dean Kremer.

Byron Buxton and Harrison Bader have drawn rave reviews for their defense this season — and for good reason. The pair of Gold Glovers have shown off with the leather all year long, letting few balls touch grass.

On Wednesday night, they helped the team in a different way: Both launched home runs, driving in all five of the Twins’ runs in their 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Target Field.

For Buxton, when he got ahold of a first-pitch curveball from Charlie Morton out to left field in the third inning, it was his third home run in as many games. A day after driving in four runs, the center fielder added another three — all on that swing — as he gave the Twins (17-20) a 3-1 lead.

As Buxton has heated up, so have the Twins.

“When he hits the ball at that good angle … they keep going. They’re not scraping walls or anything like that,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “When his timing is good, he’s staying through the ball well, which he is right now, that’s what you see. We reap the benefits of that. We end up winning games because of that.”

Buxton finished with two hits, something he has been doing a lot lately — in five of his last six games, to be specific. Buxton now has hits in seven straight games and 10 of his last 11.

“Most of the time, when that happens, it comes in bunches,” Buxton said. “So it’s just riding the wave a little bit.”

Bader’s longball came much later. A day after being scratched from the Twins’ lineup due to an illness, Bader had just one at-bat on Tuesday — and did everything the Twins could have hoped for with it.

After hitting three home runs in the team’s first six games of the season, Bader was homerless until the seventh inning of Wednesday’s game, when he hit the second pitch of his at-bat out to left for the first pinch-hit home run of his career.

“Getting him out there against a lefty (Keegan Akin) just seemed like it made some sense,” Baldelli said. “It worked out probably even better than you can imagine.”

The two-run home run gave the Twins some breathing room after the Orioles (13-22) had made it a 3-2 game earlier.

Starter Simeon Woods Richardson ran into some trouble in the fifth inning, giving up three straight hits — and a run — before Danny Coulombe came in to face his old teammates and quickly stranded a pair of runners by getting Cedric Mullins to strike out swinging.

Louie Varland entered next to protect the Twins’ slim advantage, which he did successfully — with some acrobatics.

With a pair of runners on, Varland got Jackson Holliday to hit a groundball to the right side of the infield. Varland got off the mound quickly, chasing after it and tumbling over as he grabbed the ball before shoveling it to first baseman Ty France while seated on the infield dirt.

Varland, known for his barking, was greeted in the dugout by a bunch of his teammates making his signature sound.

“It wasn’t graceful,” Varland said. “I’m glad I made the play, because if I didn’t, I’d look like an idiot.”

Brock Stewart, Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran followed him into the game, each throwing a scoreless inning of their own to run the Twins’ winning streak to four. It’s the Twins’ second four-game winning streak in their past 12 games.

“This is us. It’s fun to see,” Buxton said. “We know how good we are, and it’s just all about coming out here, doing what we’re supposed to do and making the little plays. And the little ones turn into big ones.”

A three-goal deficit in the second period of their playoff opener turned out to be too much for the Minnesota Frost to overcome on Wednesday night in Toronto. But their 3-2 loss to the Sceptres did not come until the visitors had made a valiant comeback effort.

Goals by Britta Curl-Salemme and Katy Knoll were not quite enough as the Frost gave up the game’s first three goals, and lost Curl-Salemme later in the game to a major penalty.

Frost goalie Nicole Hensley had 34 saves in the losing effort.

“Obviously we like the play when we’re on the other end of it, but it was still a great hockey game,” Minnesota coach Ken Klee said. “It’s a long series. That’s what we take from it. … We know it’s going to be a hard-fought series, and you need to get three to win the series. We didn’t get one tonight, but kudos to them.”

Toronto got a pair of goals from Julia Gosling and 24 saves from goalie Kirsten Campbell to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Game 2 is Friday night in Toronto.

Hensley, who had backstopped the Frost’s two wins to end the regular season, giving up only one goal in the process, got the Game 1 start and was tested early, thwarting a pair of solo rushes to the net by the Sceptres in the first five minutes.

Minnesota’s offense — which had scored eight times in the regular-season finale — took a bit longer to find its legs, managing six first-period shots.

Toronto finally broke through after some line juggling and a missed defensive assignment allowed Blayre Turnbull to skate across the top of the crease unobstructed and tuck a low shot past Hensley. It was the first time in their seven meetings so far this season that Toronto scored the game’s first goal.

Things could have gotten worse quickly for Minnesota when Grace Zumwinkle was whistled for a first-period penalty, putting Toronto’s PWHL-leading power play on the ice. But Hensley had three saves during the two minute advantage to keep their deficit manageable.

“We had some turnovers in the neutral zone. They hemmed us in and kept us in there, and then when you start getting tired, you start making bad decisions,” Klee said. “I think they managed that part of the game better than we did, especially early.”

Then Toronto took control of the game, with Gosling scoring at even strength and on a power play as the Sceptres had their home rink rocking.

Curl-Salemme finally gave Minnesota some offense, scoring a power-play goal on a setup pass from Claire Thompson. Less than a minute later, Curl-Salemme would exit due to a match penalty when she was called for a check to the head while carrying the puck out of the defensive zone.

Klee said he didn’t get a good look at the hit, commenting only that it was a “quick play.”

But with Toronto on a five-minute power play and looking to put the game away, Minnesota’s penalty-killers kept the Frost in the game, with Hensley making several critical saves to get the Frost to the second intermission only trailing by two.

Knoll made it a one-goal game less than three minutes into the third, scoring on a rebound. But Toronto had an answer for every Minnesota push over the final 17 minutes, keeping the Frost to the perimeter for much of the final minute when Hensley was on the bench for an extra attacker.

“We had great moments at times. If we can be more consistent with our play and our depth, I think we’re going to be able to wear them down,” Frost defender Sophie Jaques said. “Continuing to get pucks to the net and taking away the eyes of their goalie, I think, is going to make us successful throughout the series.”

Minnesota faced Toronto in round one of the playoffs a year ago, losing the first two games of the series on the road before winning three in a row and advancing to the Walter Cup Final.

Darius Randell scored in his Minnesota United debut as the Loons beat Louisville City 1-0 on Wednesday in the round of 32 of the U.S. Open Cup.

Randell was one of nine players signed to short-term agreements from MNUFC2 earlier in the day. Goalkeeper Wessel Speel; defenders Kieran Chandler, Britton Fischer, Kisa Kiingi; midfielders Curt Calov, Babacar Niang; and forwards Luke Hille and Muba Nour were also signed.

Randell scored in the 65th minute after Sang Bin Jeong passed across the front of the goal to the far side, where Randell was able to put the ball past Louisville City’s goaltender.

Speel played all 90 minutes in goal for Minnesota, which advances to play in the next round with a game to be determined.

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