First, they optioned Matt Wallner, hoping a trip to Triple-A would help him reset. Edouard Julien was next, and on Thursday, Alex Kirilloff officially became the third slumping left-handed hitter the Twins have sent down to the minors this year.

The move came after a particularly tough last six weeks: Since the beginning of May, Kirilloff is hitting just .143 with a .546 OPS. On the season, he’s hitting .201 and his 86 OPS+ represents a mark that is 14% worse than the league-average hitter.

“He needs to continue to work and we need to help him get back to where he usually is,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Lately, there have been a few different things that we could point to. They haven’t looked like him. It’s not the guy we’re familiar with.”

Typically, when he has struggled at the major league level, it’s been tied to injury. But all accounts are that Kirilloff is healthy and that’s not the reason behind the trouble he has encountered at the plate.

That’s left everyone searching for answers.

“Everyone goes through those sorts of things,” Kirilloff said in May. “It kind of just sucks when you’re going through it. It’s just like, I don’t know what’s going on. You’re mentally just tired of always just trying to think about it.”

And so the Twins hope some time spent making adjustments down at Triple-A might help Kirilloff return to form. Baldelli said they will “continue to experiment” with a couple of different things as they try to diagnose what might be wrong.

“He makes good adjustments and … truthfully, maybe it’s some of the things we bring to the table that help him figure this out,” Baldelli said. “He’s a guy that makes a lot of his own adjustments, too, so I wouldn’t doubt if he found something on his own just experimenting.”

Martin recalled

To fill Kirilloff’s spot on the roster, the Twins have recalled Austin Martin for his third stint in the majors. Since May 21, when he returned to the Saints’ lineup, he is hitting .273 with a .449 on-base percentage. That number was buoyed by one game in which he drew five walks.

“He’s had excellent at-bats at the Triple-A level,” Baldelli said. “He’s been on base all the time.”

Martin was in the starting lineup in left field on Thursday and it seems likely that he might see most of his time in the outfield, though Baldelli said he could find himself at second base — which he’s played extensively in the minor leagues — from time to time.

“It was great to be up and it was great to do what I can to help this team win, but at the end of the day, I still needed to get reps and I still needed to make sure I was prepared to the best of my ability,” Martin said. ‘I think going down there and just getting more reps kind of dialed my eyes in a little bit better, just seeing pitching on a consistent basis.”

Briefly

The Twins will wear their new City Connect uniforms, which they unveiled on Monday, for the first time on Friday. There will also be a postgame Flo Rida concert. … Simeon Woods Richardson will take the ball opposed by right-hander Mitch Spence.