Royce Lewis hit a grand slam and drove in six runs and as the visiting Minnesota Twins extended their American League Central lead to six games with a 20-6 pounding of the Cleveland Guardians on Monday night.
Jorge Polanco, Carlos Correa, Joey Gallo, Kyle Farmer and Matt Wallner also homered for Minnesota in the opener of a three-game series.
It was the third grand slam in an eight-game span for Lewis and also the fourth in his 56-game major league career. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Lewis is the first rookie in major league history to hit three grand slams in an eight-game span and only the fourth player overall, joining Lou Gehrig (1931), Jim Northrup (1968) and Larry Parrish (1982).
Three of Lewis’ four slams came against the Guardians.
Lewis, Polanco and Wallner each had three hits while Correa, Gallo and Willi Castro also had two hits for the Twins, who finished with 20 hits.
Pablo Lopez (10-7) picked up the win for Minnesota (72-66), allowing one run on eight hits over six innings. He walked three and struck out three.
Tyler Freeman homered, Ramon Laureano tripled among his three hits and Will Brennan also collected three hits for Cleveland (66-72).
Lucas Giolito (7-12), making his first start for the Guardians after being claimed on waivers from the Los Angeles Angels last week, took the loss while tying his career high with nine runs allowed over three innings. He gave up seven hits and three walks while fanning three three.
Polanco started the offensive barrage for Minnesota with his 12th homer in the first to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. Minnesota extended the advantage to 6-0 in the second as Giolito walked Polanco with the bases loaded to force in a run and Lewis then drilled a 2-0 fastball 401 feet into the left field bleachers to clear the bases.
It was Lewis’ 11th homer of the year.
Correa hit his 17th homer to highlight a three-run third that made it 9-0.
After the Twins extended their lead to 11-1 in the sixth on a two-run single by Lewis off reliever Enyel De Los Santos, Cleveland manager Terry Francona elected to rest his bullpen for the final two games of the series and brought in backup catcher David Fry to finish up on the mount.
Fry allowed seven runs on 10 hits, including homers to Gallo, Farmer and Wallner, over four innings.
Castro, who started the game in center field and also played third base, pitched the ninth for Minnesota and allowed three runs on two hits and two walks.
—Field Level Media
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