Royce Lewis lifts Twins past Blue Jays with late home run

Minnesota Twins star third baseman Royce Lewis maybe doesn’t do slumps but he’s still been struggling at the plate lately.

Entering Sunday’s game, Lewis hadn’t homered since Aug. 12 — a span of 16 games — but also was hitting just .207 with zero multi-hit games in that span.

Then, with the Minnesota Twins trailing the Toronto Blue Jays and seemingly headed for another series loss on Sunday, Lewis delivered a massive three-run homer to lift the Twins to a 4-3 victory.

Twins starter Bailey Ober, who had his streak of 11 quality starts in a row snapped in the first inning of his last start against the Atlanta Braves, gave up a solo homer to Ernie Clement on his fifth pitch of the day Sunday. But from that point on, he was locked in.

He retired the next seven Blue Jays and didn’t allow another hit all game. He finished with just the one hit and run allowed over six innings, plus three walks and eight strikeouts.

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Minnesota’s bullpen has been a disaster of late, but Griffin Jax has seemingly been the one constant the Twins have been able to turn to in a big spot. After Cole Sands did his part by throwing a scoreless seventh, Jax, of course, faltered in the eighth.

With the game tied 1-1, Jax walked two, hit one and gave up a single, giving the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead. For reference, Jax hadn’t allowed a run since July 21 and hadn’t walked anyone since July 10 entering Sunday.

But Lewis delivered and gave Jax his first win since May 6.

Jhoan Duran tossed a clean ninth to finish it out.

With the win, the Twins stayed 3.5 games back of Cleveland in the American League Central Division but also tied the Royals for the second spot in the division and the wild card spot, with Boston now 4.5 games back after losing again on Sunday.

The Twins are currently in a stretch of 13 games in 13 days, and will travel to Tampa Bay to start a seven-game road trip on Monday. Simeon Woods Richardson (5-3, 3.85 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday night vs. former Twin Zack Littell (5-8, 3.89 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 5:50 p.m.