CLEVELAND – Max Kepler absolutely will not allow the Twins to lose three consecutive games.
The Twins staved off their first 0-for-3 stretch of the season yet again Thursday, and Kepler was right in the middle of it. Of course he was — he was in Progressive Field, his own personal stomping ground.
Kepler crushed three home runs off Trevor Bauer, the second three-homer game of his career and 10th in Twins history, and his team ended a two-game slide with a 5-3 victory over the Indians, restoring its AL Central lead to 10½ games.
"Some days you don't see the ball great, some days you see it like a beach ball," said Kepler, who had been 0-for-21 since being named AL player of the week May 28. "I'm thankful just to be getting to play this game."
The Twins are too, especially when they drop a couple. Four times this year they have lost back-to-back games, and all four times, they have responded with a victory, stretching their team-record start without a three-game skid to 61 games. And in those four streak-stoppers, Kepler has hit .533, going 8-for-15 with four home runs.
They needed him Thursday, considering Bauer held the other eight Twins hitters to a 2-for-28 night. But the Indians' lone remaining uninjured All-Star pitcher couldn't stop the German slugger, for a change. Kepler had faced Bauer more times in his career than any other pitcher, 33 entering the night, and had never homered against him.
Now? Kepler has hit more homers off Bauer than any other pitcher, though he's got three against Anibal Sanchez, too.
Not that he noticed.
"Just another pitcher. I usually just study the pitchers, don't really put a name to them," Kepler said. "See what they have, see what they can do, their tendencies. Just another guy on the mound."
One person who wasn't just another pitcher: Jose Berrios, who limited Cleveland to two hits over six innings, in part by mixing in more changeups than normal, 27 in all, against a fastball-hitting opponent. Only Roberto Perez, with a fifth-inning homer, got so far as third base against Berrios.
Kepler's big night felt familiar to both Berrios and Kepler, even though it's been nearly four years since he had his last three-homer game — in the same ballpark. It came on Aug. 1, 2016, during his rookie season, with Berrios, also a rookie, on the mound and looking unhittable.
This time, Kepler led off the game by lining a low changeup into the right-field seats, his third leadoff homer of the season. Two innings later, he fouled off three straight pitches before getting an 80-mph slider at the knees, a pitch he lined just inside the right field foul pole to score Willians Astudillo ahead of him. Bauer walked Kepler in the fifth inning, but pitched to him again in the seventh. This time, Kepler jumped on a first-pitch fastball, again low in the strike zone, and clobbered it 406 feet.
"Rounding the bases, I kind of laughed to myself," Kepler said. His manager saw that, too.
"He's allowed to smile. We probably should remind him of that some time," Rocco Baldelli said. "I think he was very pleased with himself, as he should be."
He had a shot to make it even better, too: Kepler came up in the ninth with a chance to become the first Twin with a four-homer game.
"I thought about it for a second, but then I got back within myself and said, 'Same approach as every at-bat,' " Kepler said. "See it and try to put the bat on it."
He hit a ground ball into the second-base hole off Indians reliever Josh Smith, but he beat Smith to first base. No four-homer night, but it was the third four-hit night of Kepler's career, and the second time he had reached base five times.
"I love singles," Kepler said with, yes, a smile. "I love singles, especially when I haven't been getting any singles for the last four or five games."
