The Twins had to wait for three months, but the nucleus of their lineup looks exactly as they imagined before the start of the season.
Since June 4, the day Royce Lewis was activated from the injured list, they're averaging the fourth-most runs (5.7 per game) in the majors. Lewis, Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton are all healthy and contributing heavily to the offense. Lewis is rewriting the Twins record books, becoming the first player in team history with seven homers in his first 12 games of the season.
Correa was named the American League's player of the week Monday after tallying 17 hits in 31 at-bats (.548 batting average) with three homers, nine RBI and nine runs. In his past 11 games, he's delivered eight multi-hit performances.
Buxton, comparatively to the other two, is hitting a mere .355 over his past 31 at-bats and eight starts.
"Having them all feeling great, playing great at the same time — this is what happens," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "They play like this and, all of a sudden, we're putting runs on the board, we're making a lot of different things happen."
The Twins' Big Three — all top-two picks out of high school in their respective draft classes — have more questions about their health than their talent. They all had a stint on the injured list earlier this year, and they've been in the same lineup together only 22 times over the past two seasons.
Now that they're healthy, they're feeding off each other. Lewis laughed as he explained Correa will ask him to sing Luke Combs' "Where the Wild Things Are" together in the dugout during games.
"It's not even talking," Lewis said. "It's singing, and I have to sing it with him."
On the field, against the lowly Oakland Athletics, the Big Three combined for eight hits, five RBI and four runs during the Twins' 6-2 victory Thursday. The trio, in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader, produced six hits, four runs and three homers in another 6-2 win.
"I ain't going to sit here and lie — it's something to look forward to," Buxton said. "This is what you want, you know? Obviously, we're not leading the division, but there are still a lot of teams hunting us making sure we don't have that chance to be able to come back. That's the fun part of just everybody in here knowing how good you are. It's just one of those where people don't want to see us [like this]. That's literally how it feels."
Buxton hasn't sustained a prolonged offensive hot streak this season, but the Twins believe he's shown encouraging signs over the past week. He's running at top speed, beating out a routine ground ball to shortstop for an infield single Thursday. There was an RBI triple Friday where he sprinted from the batter's box to third base in 11.4 seconds. He stole a base Sunday against a lefthanded pitcher with ease.
He's not satisfied with the way he's hitting, he said, "because there's another step."
"A lot of Buck's at-bats, his swings, his consistency at the plate comes down to how he's getting to the ball, staying through the ball," Baldelli said. "A lot of that comes from his lower half. I think he's worked himself into a really good spot where he's finding his swing — this is probably the time of the year where he's finding it as good as he has all year long."
Lewis and Correa will inevitably cool down, but the reason the Twins were so optimistic about the potential of their Big Three was they all have experience carrying an offense for a week. When more than one of them is clicking, they look like they did last week when they beat up on the last-place A's and Colorado Rockies, winning six of seven games.
"I love our lineup," Correa said. "I love where we're at right now as a team. We're very confident."
Finally, after waiting through injury after injury, the Twins have the core of their offense together for the first time in two years.
"That's an exciting thought for everyone that is pulling for our team," Baldelli said. "That's what you're looking for. … I like watching great players. Those are three great players and they're certainly on top of their game at the moment."
