MINNEAPOLIS -- For two games in a row, Trevor Larnach has now come through with big, late RBI knocks off left-handed pitchers. A single on Thursday brought the Twins within one run of the Tigers in the sixth inning, while another sixth-inning hit on Friday broke a scoreless tie.

And still -- the rookie outfielder isn't happy about that.

"Last night, the guy threw me a slider on the outer half and I rolled it over," Larnach said. "Yeah, it got through and it got the job done. But that’s not what I wanted to do with it. Just things like that because those will turn into outs depending on where the infielders are. So, things like that aren’t what I’m looking for, even though it got the job done.

"Kepler got the same pitch and he drove it the other way; that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m not trying to hit a ground ball and find a hole and get lucky; I’m trying to drive the ball and hit for extra bases and drive in runs."

He's the kind of guy, he says, where even if he goes 2-for-4 or crushes a homer, he'll still find something about his performance that "drives [him] nuts," where he'll think about what he could have done differently to live up to his standards -- which he admits seem "unrealistic" to others.

"But to me they seem realistic, so I work toward that," Larnach said.

Though Larnach owns an .865 OPS against right-handers and a .622 mark against lefties in his short Major League career, the Twins haven't hesitated to keep putting him in their lineup -- anywhere from the No. 2 to the No. 4 spot, at that -- against southpaws to keep building up his experience in those matchups. He's grateful for those chances.

That's because, thoughtful as he is about his hitting, he knows that he's struggled a good deal to adjust to offspeed pitches from left-handers in particular, once they stopped throwing him fastballs at the start of his career.

While he's got an expected slugging percentage of .631 against left-handed fastballs this season, Larnach has a .199 mark against breaking pitches and an .045 clip against offspeed offerings from southpaws -- and you'd better believe he knows that. But at this point in the season, with the Twins well out of contention, he'll likely keep getting those opportunities to learn -- and keep bettering himself for continued chances in those spots for years to come.

“I’ve been grateful, very grateful," Larnach said. "I’ve been doing the best I can with those opportunities, but at the same time, I think the biggest thing I’m taking from them is I’m learning. What the situation will look like, I’m taking it all in and learning from it. At the same time, later on, I’m trying to make my adjustments based on what I’m getting myself out with."

Rortvedt showing off big arm
You'd think that opposing baserunners would take one look at Twins backup catcher Ben Rortvedt's prominent arm muscles and assume that it's a bad idea to run on him -- but they've been testing the rookie on the basepaths, anyway.

He's quickly showed that's a bad idea.

After throwing out Akil Baddoo at second base on a steal attempt in the first inning on Friday, Rortvedt has nabbed six of the 13 runners trying to swipe a bag against him this season, giving him a 46 percent caught-stealing rate as a catcher that nearly doubles the Major League average of 24 percent.

The 23-year-old doesn't have enough stolen base attempts against him to qualify for the leaderboards, but Rortvedt's mark is also far ahead of qualified MLB leader Martín Maldonado, who has caught 40.7 percent of would-be basestealers this season.

"Benny, first and foremost, has exceptional arm strength," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "To start with, I think it would be wrong to start this discussion about him defensively with anything but that. He’s worked very hard at different aspects of his game -- his game-calling, his receiving -- but when we’re talking about throwing out runners, it’s really hard to miss when you’re watching a Twins game and watching Benny throw."

Among the 63 catchers in the league with at least 10 "max-effort" throws this season tracked by Statcast, Rortvedt is tied for third with an average arm strength of 81.1 mph, behind only Willson Contreras and Francisco Mejía.

"He’s the kind of guy that can really stop the other team completely in their tracks once they see what he can do," Baldelli said. "Sometimes, teams will come out and maybe test a guy early on. But then he, you know, throws a guy out, and it’s not something you can look away from. It’s pretty in-your-face, the way he does it."

Rortvedt hasn't done much with the bat this season, posting a .370 OPS through 26 games, but that's to be expected, seeing as he was a defense-first catcher throughout the Minors, too, and he missed the entire 2020 season before he essentially skipped the Triple-A level.

But even as he adjusts to the big leagues as a hitter, he's already making an impact with his cannon.