Royce Lewis has been waiting all season to get into the action for the Minnesota Twins.
On Tuesday evening, Lewis finally will get his chance. The Twins activated him from the injured list on Monday, and he is expected to make his season debut when Minnesota plays the Baltimore Orioles to open a three-game series in Minneapolis.
Lewis has been sidelined since spring training after injuring his left hamstring. He has appeared in 152 games over parts of the past three seasons with the Twins with a career average of .268, 33 home runs and 104 RBIs.
The Twins return home after taking two of three games against the Boston Red Sox on the road over the weekend. It marked a bounce-back for the Twins after they opened the road trip by losing three out of four games against the Cleveland Guardians.
“The two wins to finish it, the types of games that we won, I think those are things to be very pleased about,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Our pitching did a really nice job on the trip. I have to be really happy with what we saw.
“Our starters gave us great opportunities to win all week long. I think there is a lot of good that is going to come out of this trip.”
Along with welcoming back Lewis, the Twins also will have another key player available after activating Willi Castro off the injured list Monday. Castro hit .227 with one homer, five RBIs and one stolen base in 18 games before he was sidelined by an oblique strain.
Minnesota sent infielders Edouard Julien and Mickey Gasper to Triple-A St. Paul to clear space on the active roster for Lewis and Castro.
Baltimore arrives on the heels of a 3-3 homestand that concluded with back-to-back losses against the Kansas City Royals. The Orioles, like the Twins, have struggled through the first month-plus of the season and will try to improve upon a 5-11 road record to start 2025.
One reason for Orioles optimism is the performance of Jackson Holliday, the former No. 1 overall draft pick who is in his first full season in the big leagues. The 21-year-old is hitting .273 with four homers, 11 RBIs and two steals in 28 games, and he is coming off a two-homer performance Sunday.
“Not trying to move the ball forward, but just trying to put good swings on it,” Holliday said. “However I feel when I’m feeling smooth and free to deliver a good swing is kind of how I’ve been going about it.”
Orioles left-hander Cade Povich (1-2, 5.16 ERA) is set to make his seventh start after coming off a no-decision against the New York Yankees on Wednesday, when he allowed three runs on three hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Povich is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in one career start against the Twins. He allowed two hits, walked one and struck out two during 5 2/3 scoreless innings last Sept. 27.
Minnesota will counter with right-hander Pablo Lopez (2-2, 2.25). He took a hard-luck loss in his most recent start despite limiting the Guardians to two runs on four hits in 6 1/3 innings. He walked none and struck out six.
This will be Lopez’s fifth career start against the Orioles. In his first four, he has gone 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA, and he has struck out 28 batters in 22 2/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
