SAN FRANCISCO -- It was far too early to worry, but, well, it didn’t feel great. Following a sensational start to his big league career, Walker Jenkins promptly fell into his first slump in the Majors. He boarded a flight to California last week sporting a batting average that started with a zero.
That’s the good thing about small sample sizes, though: they can turn quickly. A week later, Jenkins heads back to Minnesota as one of the hottest players in the American League, riding a seven-game hitting streak and seeing much better numbers next to his name on the scoreboard.
Jenkins put a capper on his memorable week with an RBI pinch-single on Wednesday afternoon that broke a tie and sent the Twins to a 4-2 win over the Giants at Oracle Park. The victory gave the Twins their first road series win since early July and cemented a winning final road trip of the season.
Held out of the starting lineup with a lefty on the mound for San Francisco, Jenkins nonetheless found a way to contribute. With one out and a runner on second in the seventh inning, and righty reliever Dylan Smith in the game, manager Derek Shelton called on Jenkins to pinch-hit for Ben Ross.
It was his first time pinch-hitting in the Majors, but he was unfazed. Jenkins jumped a first-pitch curveball from Smith and poked it through the right side for the go-ahead run. It gave him a hit in every game of the road trip, and either an RBI or a run scored in seven of his last eight games.
In seven games in Anaheim and San Francisco, Jenkins tallied 12 hits, three homers, four RBIs, six runs, and struck out exactly once. It’s the kind of jolt the club had in mind when it promoted him from Triple-A St. Paul on Aug. 28, and it just took a couple of weeks to get here.