Jeffers, Correa lead way as Twins slam southpaw 

DETROIT -- This is much more along the lines of what the Twins had in mind when facing left-handed pitchers this season.

Fueled by three-run homers from Ryan Jeffers and Carlos Correa, Minnesota unleashed nearly a season’s worth of frustration against lefties on Detroit southpaw Joey Wentz, crushing the rookie for eight runs in three innings to cruise to a 9-3 victory on Monday in the opener of a four-game series at Comerica Park.

“We've expected more of ourselves as a lineup against lefties,” Correa said. “It hasn't happened. But we're in a good stretch right now. We're playing good baseball. That's all that matters. What happened in the past is in the past. Now, we've got to focus on trying to get a good lead in the division and try to go out there and win it.”

More frequent timely hits and lopsided outputs have helped the Twins’ offense carry a greater share of the load in the second half as Minnesota claimed its fifth straight win, and its sixth in seven games. The Twins are six games above .500 (60-54), matching a season high, and they extended their lead to a season-best 5 1/2 games above the second-place Guardians in the AL Central.

And just as encouragingly, Minnesota is no longer last in the Majors in hitting left-handed pitchers, as it was for most of the season.

Building on a strong five-run performance against St. Louis left-hander Matthew Liberatore at Busch Stadium on Thursday, the Twins rocketed out of the gate against Wentz with a four-run first inning fueled by five hits, with the damage coming on Correa’s one-out RBI double and a three-run homer by Jeffers.

The 395-foot blast to left marked Jeffers’ fourth in four games and extended his hitting streak to a career-best 13 games, the longest by a Twins hitter since Jorge Polanco’s 14-game streak in early 2019. With Byron Buxton out with a right hamstring strain, Jeffers could continue to see plate appearances at designated hitter against lefties to help the team build on this success.

“Sometimes, I get caught up in how good he is behind the plate when he's catching, on defense, how smart he is, the things he picks up on, whether batters are making adjustments to our plan, just pitch after pitch,” said Pablo López, who threw seven scoreless innings to win a second consecutive decision. “I forget how good he is offensively, too. He's a very strong guy.”

The second inning brought more fireworks, with singles by Donovan Solano and Polanco setting up a three-run blast by Correa just over the right-field wall, marking his second homer since June 25 and first multihit game since July 22.

Two consecutive games with timely hits won’t quite be enough yet to show that Correa’s season-long struggles might be turning around, but his 108.3 mph double to the left-field corner in the first was doubly encouraging in that it marked his hardest pulled hit since his homer off Tigers righty Reese Olson in this same ballpark on June 24.

Correa noted that his continued adjustments to add the power element back to his game have been encouraging in the past few games, which has led to harder-hit batted balls -- at 107.4, 109.1 and now 108.3 mph -- in the past three contests.

“Just making adjustments in the swing and finding that power again,” Correa said. “It just feels good to be able to drive the ball and barrel balls hard. It's always a work in progress, but it's been feeling good lately.”

Toss in a three-hit game from new arrival Jordan Luplow in his first Twins start after he was claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays on Friday specifically to add a right-handed outfield option to match up against lefties, and Minnesota looks to be trending in a better direction -- and it will have a chance to build on it right away against lefty Eduardo Rodriguez on Tuesday.

“I don't know if there's magic sauce,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think it's kind of that gritty work that goes into adjusting over the course of 162 games. Our guys are looking at it like, ‘Yeah, it's time. It's time we go out there and grind these left-handers down a little bit, make them work, make them make good pitches and hit some balls on the barrel.’”