Major League Baseball doesn't make its player of the week announcements until Monday afternoon, but Carlos Correa deserves early congratulations.
Correa, already hitting as well as anybody in the American League, drilled a two-run homer in the second inning and a solo homer in the fourth inning. The 12th multihomer game in Correa's career, along with another homer from Royce Lewis, staked the Twins to a quick lead in their 6-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader.
The Twins have won six of their last seven games. Correa, in those games, has compiled 18 hits in 31 at-bats (.581 batting average), three homers, a double and 10 RBI.
"Every single time he swings the bat, I feel like he's barreling it up," said Twins starter Bailey Ober, who allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings and received a standing ovation from the announced Target Field crowd of 33,835. "Every single time. All the singles that he's had were still hit at almost like 110 [mph]. ... I wouldn't want to face him right now."
The Twins had a three-run lead after their first three batters. Manuel Margot opened with a six-pitch walk against A's lefthanded starter JP Sears. Five pitches later, Correa connected on an elevated fastball and lifted over the wall in left field for a two-run homer.
Correa pumped his right fist when he saw the ball clear the fence. After crossing home plate, with Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" blared through the stadium's speakers, Correa did a quick handshake with Lewis before pulling Lewis close to give him a quick scouting report.
"He was just saying, 'Stick with your approach. You can get this guy,'" Lewis said.
As Correa walked through the dugout, Lewis launched the next pitch, a slider, beyond the right-field wall. It was the Twins' fifth set of back-to-back homers this season. Correa and Lewis hugged as they exchanged the team's new home run vest, and Lewis yelled, "Love you, Dad!" after he reached the camera bay at the end of the dugout.
"I thought it was a sinker," said Lewis, who has six homers in 11 games this season, somehow showing no signs of rust after he missed 58 games with a quadriceps injury. "I didn't even know what the pitch was. I'm a little nervous that my eyes are starting to go a little wonky."
Sears surrendered a season-high nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. Correa, who hit a changeup for an infield single in the second inning, hammered an inside slider to the third deck in left field for a solo homer in the fourth inning. Three hits on three different pitches from Sears.
It's been that type of hot streak for Correa, who became the first Twins hitter with 22 hits in a 10-game stretch since Delmon Young in 2010.
"People ask me, like right now, 'how does it feel?'" Correa said. "It's the same as if I go 0-for-4. I try my best every day. I put in the work every day as you guys know. I'm working on my craft and trying to get better every single day. Whatever happens on the field is just results. I believe in the process more than the results."
Ober, pitching with an early lead, struck out eight batters to match his second-highest total in a start this year. He didn't have a runner reach third base against him until his final batter, Daz Cameron, hit a solo home run to left field. It was an afternoon where Ober had all his pitches working, drawing swings and misses with all four pitches in his repertoire.
Carlos Santana added a two-run, opposite-field homer off A's lefty reliever Brady Basson in the seventh inning. Santana, who has 11 homers this season, has 13 RBI in his last 10 games.
