MINNEAPOLIS – It certainly wasn’t conventional, but Walker Jenkins has his first big league home run.
Jenkins, the Twins’ No. 1 prospect and No. 15 overall in baseball, went deep on a 37.4 mph eephus from Tigers utility man Zach McKinstry in the eighth inning of an 11-1 Twins win on Monday night. He hit the ball a Statcast-projected 388 feet, high off the right-field foul pole.
Fellow rookie and recent debutant Kaelen Culpepper had led off the inning with a walk off McKinstry. That brought up Jenkins, batting in the nine hole in his fourth Major League game.
Jenkins laid off the first pitch from McKinstry then fouled off the second before connecting on a 1-1 offering. It was the third hit of his big league career, after he debuted on Friday night. He also walked and scored earlier in the game.