Miranda, Jeffers stepping up as Twins need them most

MINNEAPOLIS -- With Royce Lewis sidelined at least until the All-Star break, the Twins know they’re going to need production from their entire lineup -- but especially their right-handed bats -- to make up for his absence.

Thursday afternoon’s display provided a blueprint for surviving Life Without Royce.

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Jose Miranda and Ryan Jeffers led a 14-hit attack as the Twins beat the Tigers 12-3 in seven innings at a rain-soaked Target Field.

Miranda went 5-for-5 with three doubles, while Jeffers was 3-for-4 with a double and a home run. The 4-5 hitters in Minnesota’s order combined for six runs and seven RBIs. Miranda’s five hits were a career high and raised his batting average to .312 on the season.

“Just like we saw today, he’s been swinging like that for a while,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Miranda. “He's been giving us great at-bats, hitting balls on the screws, using the middle of the field, doing all the things you want to see, shortening up with two strikes and still finding a way to find the barrel. He has been exactly where we want him to be.

“We’re really getting a chance to see what it looks like with extended opportunities out there. He’s taking advantage.”

In 19 games since June 12, Miranda is slashing .419/.468/.642 with nine doubles, two homers, 12 runs scored and 19 RBIs.

Miranda credited his success to “sticking to the same routine every day, kind of having the same plan, same approach. Obviously, different pitchers, you've got different stuff to do before the game. But having a routine, that's one of the main things for me, especially this year and trying to be consistent.”

After falling behind 3-0 in the second inning on Thursday, Miranda and Jeffers started the comeback with back-to-back doubles. And with two outs in the fourth inning, Miranda laced a drive into the right-center gap for a two-run double. Jeffers then golfed an 0-2 splitter into the left-field stands for his team-leading 14th homer of the season and a 9-3 lead.

Those were four of eight two-out runs scored by the Twins on the day, a factor that Baldelli called “a difference-maker.”

“It’s the difference between being in a game and having to battle through a game against a team for nine innings or separating,” he said. “I think we did a good job of adjusting throughout our individual at-bats, where we start the at-bat out at one place but by the end we’re altering what we’re doing and putting the ball in play. Hitting balls -- they don’t all have to be 110 off the bat, but finding a way to hit the ball sometimes when the guys are in scoring position is a big part of the answer. Our guys did a real nice job of that.”

Jeffers was one of the bats that carried the Twins’ offense through the first six weeks of the season. On May 14, Jeffers had 10 home runs through the team’s first 36 games. He hit two home runs in the next 37 games -- both on the same day, May 30 vs. Kansas City.

But the balls have started falling again for Jeffers. In his last 12 games, he’s got 12 hits, including two doubles and two home runs, and he’s driven in 10 runs.

Baldelli suggested that Jeffers’ bat wasn’t as cold as the stats made it look during his dry spell.

“There were some periods of time where he wasn’t getting the hits where he was actually fine. He was making good adjustments,” Baldelli said. “Yes, he was hot early on. Do you get hot like that again during the season? I don’t know, but right now, he feels good with different types of swings against different types of pitchers.”

It’s created a positive vibe in the clubhouse, one that can even overcome the loss of a key figure such as Lewis.

“Everyone's playing great right now. We’re swinging the bat. We’re having really good at-bats. Pitching the ball very well,” said Bailey Ober, who won his third decision out of his last four starts on Thursday. “We’re playing good baseball, and that’s our goal every day -- just go out here and play complete baseball all the way around, offense, defense, pitching. That’s just how it is right now. Hopefully we can stay on this little run and keep it going and keep that momentum going into the second half.”