CLEVELAND — Trevor Larnach can pinpoint what wasn’t working for him during the early part of the season, but he still can’t explain why, exactly, it was happening.

“I was coming up out of the ground, out of my hip, my hands were climbing up,” the outfielder said. “I think it was just baseball doing its thing, making it hard on you.”

Those first two, two and a half weeks were hard on Larnach. In his first 18 games, he went 11 for 61 (.180) with just one extra base-hit — a double —  and four RBIs.

It wasn’t until the end of the last road trip in Atlanta, where the Twins played from April 18-20, that he started feeling more like himself again. He was hitting balls hard. The decision-making was there. Results would soon follow.

“I was hitting the ball hard again,” Larnach said. “That was the tell-tale sign the work we’re doing is improving. … It was keeping that same work ethic and trusting it. If it shows up, then it shows up and that’s great, but just working at it.”

In his past 10 games coming into Tuesday’s contest in Cleveland, Larnach has put it all together, hitting .316 with four home runs, 10 RBIs and a 1.024 OPS. Heading into Tuesday, he had recorded at least one hit in nine of his past 10 games.

His overall numbers have begun to pick up after a start that had him feeling as if he were “fighting for my life just to walk or get one hit.”

“He’s swinging the bat really good right now,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s the one that’s making it happen. He never got down. He never changed what he was trying to do before the game. He’s found a nice little routine for himself, something that works good for him.”

Bride off to strong start

Jonah Bride was just 4 for 40 when the Twins swung a trade with the Marlins for the recently designated-for-assignment infielder. When he first arrived — he was added to the roster on April 17 — hitting coach Matt Borgschulte made a suggestion, asking him to lower his hands.

“Right away, when I came in, that’s the first thing they talked to me about was getting those hands down,” Bride said.

His hands, now, he said are lower than they’ve ever been.

He’s gotten some immediate results to show for it. Through his first six games as a Twin heading into Tuesday, he was 7 for 14. Three of those hits came in Monday’s victory against Guardians at Progressive Field.

“It’s a tough game; you’re going to fail a lot. Starting the way I did with Miami wasn’t ideal,” Bride said. “But I think it’s made me better, for sure, even in the long term. It’s going to happen. Coming over here, they gave me some adjustments and I went from that. Obviously, it’s got me on the right track and I’m going to continue working on that.”

Briefly

Pablo López is scheduled to start on Wednesday in the third game of the series against Cleveland. Luis Ortiz is scheduled to start for the Guardians. López gave up two runs in five innings pitched his last time out, which was his first start since coming off the injured list.