Royce Lewis is starting at third base for the first time since he suffered a hamstring injury on Sept. 19, and the Twins don’t appear to have any concerns about their young star aggravating the injury.
“I’m confident in any ability that I have. I just go out there with the mentality that we gotta do whatever we gotta do to win and I’m really excited to get back out there, especially now that it’s colder I can stay warm out there,” Lewis said before Tuesday’s Game 3 of the ALDS against the Astros.
Lewis said he thinks he would’ve been “fine” playing in the field last week against the Blue Jays but he’s glad the Twins exercised caution with his return to the lineup.
“They gotta sometimes help me from hurting myself,” Lewis said. “In a way it was smarter for me to back off, I think it was the best decision. I think we waited till ultimately I could actually start moving and make all the plays without thinking about the hamstring a hamstring or hurting myself, in a sense. I think today’s a great first day for that.”
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said Lewis has been making “steady improvements,” though he stopped short of saying Lewis’s hamstring is 100%.
“He’s significantly better. We think he can make all the plays,” Baldelli said. “We’re putting him back over there because we think he’s prepared.”
Meanwhile, before we get to the Buxton update, here’s a funny quote from Lewis.
“I don’t get hurt every single play. It might seem like it but I don’t,” Lewis joked when longtime Minnesota sports columnist asked if him if he thought he was going to “die” when the Twins asked him to try and score from third on a safety squeeze in Game 2.
OK, let’s get to the Buxton update…
“I’m not going to give day-to-day updates on Buck and exactly everything he’s doing,” Baldelli said. “We’re just going to continue to treat him day-to-day internally. We’re planning on winning the series and then after the series we can discuss.”
That’s a confident statement from Baldelli, who was then asked if Lewis getting out of the DH role would make adding Buxton to the roster an easier decision if the Twins advance to the ALCS.
“I’m not going to talk about future roster,” Baldelli reiterated. “We’re worried about today’s game. That’s clearly our focus today.”
He added: “I think focusing and looking at roster moves and players that, as important as Buck is to our team and our organization, getting into all of the different directions that his availability could mean for us, I think it takes away from what’s going on at the moment.”
Buxton has not played a game with the Twins since Aug. 1, when he injured his hamstring. He then tweaked his bothersome right knee in a rehab assignment at Triple-A St. Paul in early September and has yet to be deemed healthy enough to play.
