Royce Lewis is going through something of a hitting slump, which is bound to happen for any major league player but looks odd on Lewis. His young career has often been derailed by injuries, but the Twins infielder has always hit when he’s healthy.

Heading into Saturday evening’s game against Toronto at Target Field, Lewis was hitting .204 with two extra-base hits, 17 strikeouts at two walks in his previous 15 games.

“Ebbs and flows of a season, it’s a long year,” Lewis said. “I think I’m close to 200 at-bats (194), finally, and I’m just trying to stay healthy and be on the field.”

Health has been the only issue to stop Lewis since even before 2017’s top overall draft pick was first promoted to the majors in 2022. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee early in spring training in 2021, and tore it again while playing his lone game in center field for the Twins in 2022.

After arriving late in 2023, he missed the last 10 days of the regular season because of a hamstring injury but finished the season hitting .309 with 15 homers and 52 RBIs in 58 games before hitting four homers and driving in five runs in six playoff games. This season, he has missed 58 games with a Grade 2 oblique strain suffered in the first game, and another 21 because of a groin strain.

When he is healthy, though, Lewis, 25, has been one of the Twins’ best and most productive hitters. In his first 66 major league games, he hit five grand slams; that’s 73 games fewer than the previous record holder, Rudy York — who did it with the Detroit Tigers in 1937.

In his first 30 games after returning from the oblique, Lewis hit .278 with 11 home runs and 21 RBIs and a .955 OPS. Since then, it’s .233 with eight extra-base hits (four homers) and a .704 OPS — although he still has a robust 19 RBIs in those 25 games.

“He’s battling to, I think, re-find everything that he’s looking for,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Sometimes it only takes a swing or two to feel it again and remember everything that you are. That happens all the time in our game.

“We’re going to keep playing him. We’re going to let him go out there and find it on the field.”

Heading into Saturday’s game, Lewis hadn’t hit a homer in 15 games, the longest drought of his young career.

“I’m definitely going through some stuff with my body,” he said. “So, like I said, just being healthy is important to me. I’m just trying to figure out how to be on the field every day, really, and I feel like I’m doing that very well and preserving my body.”

Paddy catch

Chris Paddack was on the field before the game Saturday playing catch up to 60 feet, the first part of his rehabilitation from a dead arm period that ultimately revealed a flexor strain in his right forearm.

Out since July 17, Paddack is just beginning a process he hopes will put him on the mound for the playoffs. The Twins started Saturday 3½ out in the American League Central, and 3½ up in the race for the AL’s third wild card spot.

“It will be a pretty cautious, slow buildup the first two weeks, and then hopefully I’ll be able to push a little bit,” Paddack said. “Playoffs is probably going to be a realistic goal, out of the ’pen.”

Playing in his first full season since a second Tommy John surgery on his right arm, Paddack was 5-3 with a 4.99 earned-run average in 17 starts (88⅓ innings) before being placed on the 10-day IL with arm fatigue on July 25.

Knowing he will pitch out of the bullpen helps, he said. So does knowing he returned from his second TJ surgery last year and pitched well in the postseason — he allowed one hit and fanned three in 3⅔ scoreless innings against the Astros in the AL Division Series.

“I want to be a part of this run, but I need to do what’s best for my career and then help the guys out whenever we close this 3½-game gap in the next 29 games,” he said.

Two up, none down

Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 players on Sunday, and the Twins plan to have an extra pitcher and position player for Sunday’s series finale against the Blue Jays.

Infielder Brooks Lee is likely to be the position player. On the IL with biceps tendinitis since July 31, he’s been on a rehab assignment with Class AAA St. Paul. The pitcher could be any number of arms who have been up with the big league club already this season, including Louie Varland, Luis Castilla and Randy Dobnak.

Whoever it is, Baldelli said he expects both players to be available on Sunday.

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