Jay Jackson thought about declining the assignment to Triple-A. He was 36 years old, had struggled to begin the season and there were no guarantees that he would be back in the major leagues.

The Twins’ front office convinced him otherwise.

“Just talking to the front office and them relaying to me that they do believe in me and I have a chance to be back here,” Jackson said. “After that, it was, ‘OK, I’m going to give it the best I have again and see where it goes.’”

Turns out his return to the majors came fairly quickly. He was designated for assignment on May 19 and was back in the majors less than a month later, added once again to the roster on Wednesday.

Jackson, who gave up a run in an inning pitched on Wednesday, returned in place of Louie Varland, who was called upon to make a spot start on Tuesday and filled in well with five scoreless innings. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Twins designated Diego Castillo for assignment.

“He’s looked pretty good. He’s capable and he’s a good option to bring back in this role right now,” manager Rocco Baldelli said of Jackson. “He’s a guy that’s still in a lot of ways that we look at pitching and evaluate guys, our group likes him. That’s it. I like him.”

These past few weeks, Jackson said, have been filled with a lot of family time, reflection and getting himself back to “feeling like myself again.”

Jackson was roughed up over the span of 17 games, giving up 19 runs (17 earned) and posting a 6.85 earned-run average. His 1.388 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) was far from where it was last season (0.910) in his most productive year as a major leaguer.

The final straw before he was designated for assignment was a one-inning performance against the Cleveland Guardians in which he gave up four runs (three earned).

“Bad luck or whatnot, the numbers were still bad at the end of the day, and I didn’t perform the way I wanted to or the way the team expected me to,” Jackson said. “Just to get back to the normal old Jay and be out there performing the way I should.”

Jackson, who was often at the hospital this offseason with his son, who was born prematurely last year, said he “didn’t get as right,” as he would have wanted to, noting that he wasn’t preparing as well as he “probably should have.”

But now he’s been given a second opportunity after going down to Triple-A and he hopes to make the most of it.

“I’m glad to be back and try to help the team as much as I can, and just to be back with the city, knowing they had trust in me to be back to help the team,” Jackson said. “That’s the main thing to me, to be back here and give it another shot to perform better than I did last time.”

Briefly

Reliever Brock Stewart (shoulder tendinitis) has been playing catch and Wednesday, he threw off the mound, throwing five fastballs. He reported coming out of that feeling good. … The Twins will play host to the Oakland Athletics for four games beginning on Thursday. Joe Ryan will start the first game.

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The organizers of Afton’s Fourth of July parade and celebration are gearing up for the big event.

The Afton Parade Committee announced on Wednesday that this year’s grand marshal will be Pioneer Press reporter Mary Divine.

The parade, which attracts thousands of spectators, starts at 1 p.m. July 4.

The Afton Schooner Band, one of the parade’s most popular entries, will begin rehearsals June 27.

Musicians of all ages and skill levels are invited to play with the volunteer band, but there’s a special call for drummers and people who play low-brass instruments such as trombones, tubas and euphoniums and baritones, said band organizer Lucy McAllister.

The band will play “John Philip Sousa-type marches” while riding on a decorated float on July 4, said McAllister, 86, who has played the flute in the band since she founded it in 1975.

Rehearsals will be from 7 to 8 p.m. June 17, July 1 and July 3 at the Afton Historical Museum. Participants should bring a music stand.

For more information or to get music to practice in advance, contact McAllister at lucymcallister5@gmail.com.

Afton Fourth of July parade

What: Parade with more than 125 units and Pioneer Press reporter Mary Divine as grand marshal.
When: 1 p.m. July 4. All roads to and from the Old Village will close at 12:45 p.m.
Where: South St. Croix Trail
How to get there: Free trolley rides from the Afton City Hall parking lot to the south end of the Old Village from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (except during the parade). Free off-site parking and free round-trip shuttle rides from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Lakeland Plaza in Lakeland.
Also: Food, music, children’s activities and a beer tent in Town Square Park before and after the parade.
For more information: aftonparade.com

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In the empty locker next to Pablo López’s stall, a large wheel has now taken up residence. It’s covered underneath a sheet, brought out only after wins.

The pitcher of the game and the player of the game — chosen by the previous winners — then play rock-paper-scissors for their chance to spin for a prize. It’s a new idea that López introduced, designed to bring his teammates together.

Carlos Correa may have collected five hits, a new career high, in the Twins’ 17-9 win over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday afternoon at Target Field, but the shortstop took home one loss after the game.

“I’m terrible,” he said of his rock-paper-scissors abilities. “I’m 0 for 2 against Pablo. … I’ve got to look at some YouTube videos, see how I can read him.”

López, the Twins’ pitcher of the game and winner of Wednesday’s prize, rebounded after giving up seven runs at Yankee Stadium his last start, giving up two runs in five innings pitched on Wednesday.

“It was am improvement, both results-wise and process-oriented-wise,” López said. “I wasn’t as sharp as I wanted to, but I feel like we still executed pitches when we needed to.”

And it helped that teammates put up five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, the beginning of a prolific offensive day in which the Twins compiled numbers more likely to be seen at altitude in Denver than in Minneapolis.

Twins hitters erupted for a season-high 24 hits in the win, the most they’ve had in a single game since they collected 28 against the Seattle Mariners in 2017 and tied for the third most in franchise history.

Every hitter in the starting lineup collected at least one hit, led by Correa, who, during a 37-minute rain delay, told his teammates that he had never had five hits in a game and was clearly pumped up when he accomplished the feat. Royce Lewis, Kyle Farmer, Willi Castro and Carlos Santana each had three and another three players added two apiece. All nine starters plus Max Kepler, who entered late as a pinch hitter, drove in at least one run in the win.

The offensive outburst against Rockies (24-44) starter Austin Gomber began with leadoff hitter Manuel Margot laying down a bunt in the first.

“That was pretty cool. No one was expecting that,” Farmer said. “Guys just swinging at strikes in the zone and taking balls. It was a good spot.”

The Twins (36-32) tagged Gomber for eight runs, forcing him out of the game in the fourth, a frame in which Castro hit a solo home run and the Twins scored three runs.

They tacked on another two in the sixth with Royce Lewis sending his fifth home run out of the season out to the second deck in left field, bringing home Correa.

“When you’ve got Royce hitting behind you, you feel like one of the at-bats he’s going to hit a home run that day,” Correa said. “You’re just trying to get on base. One of those he did.”

The strong showing from the offense helped the Twins overcome a turbulent day from the bullpen.

Steven Okert gave up a pair of runs with two outs in the seventh before Caleb Thielbar — who entered with a five-run lead — was unable to record an out for the second straight day.

Thielbar issued a pair of walks and allowed a double before a rare Correa error brought home a two runs. That spelled the end of his day, as the Twins turned the game over to Jhoan Duran, who allowed one inherited runner to score but got out of the inning with a two-run lead.

But while the game was tight just briefly, the Twins’ offense was back at it again in the eighth, pouring on seven more runs to push the game out of reach.

“Today was a pretty special offensive day,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “This is the type of day that I think a lot of guys remember. You had a lot of guys have a lot of highlight swings, highlight collection of at-bats and on top of that, you get a really nice start from Pablo López as well, so a lot of very positive young men leaving the ballpark today.”

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