Homer-happy Twins offense lifts team above .500 for first time since April

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Aug 1, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE – After the Twins completed two trades Friday to improve their pitching staff, acquiring A.J. Minter for the bullpen and Dean Kremer for the rotation, the offense showed signs of breaking out of its weekslong slumber.

Brooks Lee hit a two-run homer in the second inning, Royce Lewis hit a solo homer in the seventh and Ryan Jeffers added a solo homer in the eighth to lead the Twins to a 5-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

Twins closer Yoendrys Gómez walked two batters in the ninth inning before securing the save.

Moving above a .500 record for the first time since April 21, the 56-55 Twins are tied with Cleveland for the American League’s final wild-card spot. They sit three games behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central standings.

Zebby Matthews struck out a career-high 10 batters over five innings, yielding three runs on four hits and two walks, while the Twins bullpen threw four scoreless innings.

The Twins have continued to pick up wins despite a slumping lineup. They have scored more than four runs in only three of their last 13 games. They entered Friday with the sixth-fewest runs in the majors since the All-Star break, hitting one homer on their previous six-game homestand.

Mariners righthander Bryce Miller limited the Twins to three hits and two runs across 5⅓ innings. All three hits came in the second inning. After Josh Bell hit a leadoff single, Lee delivered a two-out, two-run homer to right field. Luke Keaschall also singled before the inning was over.

When the Mariners carried a one-run lead into the seventh inning, Lewis smacked a no-doubt solo homer to left field off Mariners lefty reliever José Ferrer. It was Lewis’ 11 th home run of the season.

Alan Roden, immediately after Lewis’ homer, reached on an infield single when he beat out a flip from Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor to Ferrer. Two batters later, after Eduard Bazardo replaced Ferrer, Keaschall lined a go-ahead RBI double down the left field line.

Jeffers added to the Twins’ lead with his solo homer off Bazardo to begin the eighth inning.

The Twins have been the highest-scoring offense in the AL this year. Whether it was a natural lull coming out of the All-Star break or perhaps a regression to the mean, most of their hitters have struggled to hit for much power in the last two weeks.

Well, until Friday against the Mariners.

Matthews labored through a 31-pitch first inning, loading the bases with two outs after a double and two walks. Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who went to the same high school in North Carolina as Matthews, fouled three pitches after falling into a 0-2 count before he hit a two-run, ground-rule double that bounced over the right field wall.

After the first inning, Matthews looked like a different pitcher. He allowed a two-out solo homer to Cole Young in the second inning, a first-pitch cutter he left over the plate immediately after he completed a 10-pitch at-bat with Victor Robles.

Following Young’s homer, Matthews didn’t give up another hit. He retired 10 of his final 11 batters with only one ball leaving the infield. He struck out four of the last five hitters he faced.

It was almost a repeat of Matthews’ start in Seattle last year. He gave up four runs in the first inning, including a homer to Raleigh, before giving up only two singles over the next six innings.

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