It was the Max Kepler show in Cleveland, where the Minnesota Twins rookie took the Indians pitchers deep three times in a 12-5 blowout. Kepler joined Bob Allison, Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and Justin Morneau as the only Twins players to ever hit three home runs in a game.
“It’s a cool feeling, ecstatic. Real excited,” Kepler told the Star Tribune. “I wasn’t trying at all for home runs. I never do.”
Kepler’s swing, body frame and stance may remind some of Morneau, who recently was in town as a member of the Chicago White Sox, but the German rookie is not looking to hit home runs when he gets up to the plate. All three homers were basically really hard-hit line drives.
“His swing has downward plane and that’s why he gets that backspin,” Molitor told the Pioneer Press. “Those balls basically are line drives that went really far. They weren’t lifted. They were just hit the way you want to hit a baseball.”
Kepler’s play overshadowed the efforts of two other rookies –Jose Berrios and Jorge Polanco — who also had a hand in dominating the first-place Indians.
Berrios made the start for the Twins after being called up from Triple-A and went 6.0 innings, giving up three earned runs and striking out five. He retired 16 of the final 18 batters he faced.
Polanco, who was called up when Eduardo Nunez was traded, became just the 25th Twins player, and only the fourth rookie, to triple twice in the same game.
But neither of them seemed to mind, especially Berrios who got some offense behind him early in the start.
“Hopefully he’ll keep doing that,” Berrios told the Star Tribune when asked about Kepler, “and he’ll be Rookie of the Year.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Associated Press]
