The Minnesota Twins have won eight of their last ten games coming out of the All-Star break. They started this stretch with a three-game sweep of the Athletics in Oakland and then continued by splitting a four-game set with the Seattle Mariners. It’s about as good of a start to the second half of the MLB season as Twins fans could have hoped for. Two of the youngest members of their lineup, Edouard Julien and Alex Kirilloff, have given Minnesota’s offense a huge boost. Julien and Kirilloff’s respective hot streaks could not have come at a better time for Minnesota, especially when a few veteran presences have struggled at the plate for much of the season.
Since the end of the break, Julien has hit .520 with a slugging percentage of .820. He has also homered twice in that span in back-to-back games against the Mariners. Kirilloff hasn’t been as hot as Julien, but he’s still hitting .313 and has slugged .813. Kirilloff also has hit four homers since returning from the break, with 13 runs batted in. It’s the kind of spark that the Twins lineup has been looking for for quite some time. While it’s not realistic to expect the two of them to continue this pace for the rest of the year, it has been a huge help right now. Two players do not make a team, though, so the Twins will need to start seeing results from the rest of the lineup as well.
Because Julien and Kirilloff are unlikely to continue their current torrid pace for the rest of the season, the rest of Minnesota’s offense will also have to be more productive eventually. However, Carlos Correa has significantly improved at the plate recently. He’s hitting .279 over his last 15 games with a home run and five runs batted in. Many fans and media were highly critical of Correa when he struggled throughout the first half of the season, saying that he was not worthy of the large contract that the Twins front office gave him in the offseason. Recently, Correa has silenced his critics with much better production.
Conversely, Byron Buxton had been mired in an extended slump since the start of the second half. He broke out of it with home runs in back-to-back at-bats in Minnesota’s win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night. But he had been 0 for his last 26 at the plate before that. Buxton is still hitting under .200 on the season, which is not at all the type of production that is typically expected from a designated hitter. Despite his struggles, though, he put together several good at-bats during his hitless stretch and consistently hit the ball hard. It’s possible that the stretch he was in was just an unlucky period, and the two homers on Friday will help him break out of it.
Royce Lewis and Jorge Polanco’s injuries also have factored into Minnesota’s lack of offense. Polanco and Lewis are crucial members of the lineup when healthy, but they have had to miss significant time lately. During the Seattle Mariners series, Rocco Baldelli shared that the plan was to start having Polanco get some work at third base so Julien could remain in the lineup. Once he and Lewis return, they will provide the Twins with more options in the infield and another spark in the lineup.
The Twins have struggled offensively for most of the season, and many fans and media have wondered when the lineup is going to turn it around. Minnesota has one of the best starting rotations in baseball, but the team has been unable to get run support from the lineup. There is plenty of reason for optimism, though. Correa may have turned the corner, and Buxton finally broke out of his slump this weekend. If Julien and Kirilloff can continue their solid performance down the stretch, and the rest of the lineup can get healthy, they could do some serious damage the rest of the way.
Minnesota may also bolster the lineup through trade deadline acquisitions. However, Derek Falvey shared during the break that he feels that “the vast majority of the offense we’ll get the remainder of the season is going to come from the guys in the room.” Plenty of solid players are already in place for the Twins to have a great second half, but Julien and Kirilloff alone can’t carry the offense the rest of the way.
