Cave's breakout performance not enough?

MINNEAPOLIS -- While all of the Twins’ big-name power hitters have been quiet thus far in this series against the Pirates, Jake Cave’s bat has finally started to show signs of life.

Cave drove in one of Minnesota’s two runs on Friday with a solo homer and cracked two more doubles to the opposite field on Saturday against Pittsburgh. With an outfield crunch looming in the near future, this recent production is coming at a good time for Cave, who scored one run and drove in the other while the remainder of the offense combined for only one other hit in the Twins’ 6-2 loss to the Pirates at Target Field.

The Twins have dropped 10 of their last 12 games following a 5-2 start.

“When we hit, I guess the pitching is not there,” Nelson Cruz said. “When the pitching is there, we don’t hit. ... Nothing you can do about it. Just come with the positive mentality every day. Come up and show work. Don’t put your head down. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us.”

The Twins went hitless from the third to the seventh innings as Pittsburgh right-hander Trevor Cahill induced weak contact on the ground throughout his six-inning start and combined with reliever Duane Underwood Jr. to retire 16 straight Minnesota hitters at one point.

But that long hitless streak was bookended by a pair of doubles to deep left field from Cave, who has picked up three extra-base hits in his last two games after collecting only one through his first 17 games of the season. His first two-bagger was a ringing line drive into the left-center-field gap that drove in Jorge Polanco with the Twins’ first run.

Six frames later, in the eighth, he finally snapped Minnesota’s offensive malaise with another double to left, this time off Underwood Jr., which fell just out of reach of Phillip Evans. He hustled home for another run on Josh Donaldson’s sacrifice fly to short center field.

“He’s driving the ball the other way,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s always a good sign from almost any hitter when you see a guy making an effort to do that, and then taking it out on the field and doing it.”

All three of Cave’s extra-base hits this series have come against right-handed pitching, and that’s an important niche for the 28-year-old, whose place on the roster is largely predicated on his ability to play center field in a pinch and his career-long success against righties. He owned a career .782 OPS against right-handers entering Saturday’s game, but that had been down to a .507 OPS in limited action this season.

Not only has he hit the ball with authority this series, but all three of his hits were driven to left field, as he waited on a fastball from J.B. Bukauskas for his homer on Friday and slashed a pair of curveballs the other way on Saturday.

“When Jake’s doing well, he can drive the ball to all fields,” Baldelli said. “He has good strength and can really get the bat through the zone and make something happen.”

All this is significant because the Twins could be reaching a turning point in the outfield, with No. 2 prospect Alex Kirilloff getting his first extended look at the Major Leagues in the absence of Max Kepler (COVID-19), Kyle Garlick (COVID-19) and Miguel Sanó (right hamstring strain).

Kirilloff could become an everyday player if the hitting ability that earned him a career .863 OPS in the Minors quickly translates to the Majors. Once Kepler and Garlick return, they’ll add to the jam alongside Kirilloff, Cave, Byron Buxton and Brent Rooker. Luis Arraez will also enter that picture once Andrelton Simmons returns from the COVID IL in the coming days.

Cave’s advantage is that he can fill in at all three outfield positions -- though his decision-making has sometimes been a question, as was the case again in the sixth inning Saturday, when he airmailed a throw into the infield that led to an unearned run.

Will that center-field ability be enough to maintain his roster spot if Kirilloff finds his footing? Kirilloff is 0-for-10 so far, but the outfield will only grow more crowded as others heal up -- and Cave has a remaining Minor League option.

Building on the production from the past two days could help Cave’s case.

“I haven’t, obviously, played the way I wanted to, but what can you do? You have to go out there and keep swinging and keep battling, and good things come,” Cave said.