Royce Lewis hit his third grand slam in a span of eight days and the Minnesota Twins set the tone in the race for the AL Central Division by destroying the Cleveland Guardians 20-6 Monday night.
He’s a cheat code. pic.twitter.com/j6STW5KJzw
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) September 4, 2023
Lucas Giolito made his first start since being claimed off waivers by the Guardians and he took a beating, serving up a solo homer to Jorge Polanco in the first inning, the grand slam to Lewis in the second inning and a solo homer to Carlos Correa in the third.
Lewis now has four grand slams in 56 career games, which sets the mark for the fasted to four grand slams in MLB history. The previous record was set in a span of 132 games. He’s also tied for the most grand slams in a single season (3), joining Twins greats Bob Allison (1961), Rod Carew (1976), Kent Hrbek (1985), Kirby Puckett (1992) and Torii Hunter (2007).
The win puts the Twins six games ahead of Cleveland in the AL Central. They two teams meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and that’ll wrap up their season series, so even if Cleveland wins the next two they’ll still trail the Twins by four games entering the final three weeks of the regular season.
The offensive outburst continued with the Twins scoring four more runs in the sixth and five more in the seventh, highlighted by a two-run single by Lewis, who finished 3 for 4 with six RBI, and a 458-foot homer by Joey Gallo.
Joey Gallo hit a 458-foot homer off Cleveland catcher David Fry, who pitched the final four innings of the game and was throwing fastballs clocked at 58 mph. Kyle Farmer rocked Fry for a three-run homer in the seventh and Matt Wallner tagged Fry with a two-run shot in the ninth.
