Twins in crisis management with Royce Lewis, Carlos Correa injuries

The Twins are hopeful that Lewis's hamstring injury isn't serious.

Royce Lewis tweaked his left hamstring during Minnesota's 7-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday night. While he grimaced in pain and appeared extremely frustrated when he was removed from the game, the early word is somewhat encouraging as the Twins consider him day-to-day. 

Did he dodge a bullet? Acting manager Jayce Tingler wasn't ready to go that far during his postgame press conference in place of Rocco Baldelli, who is home with his wife after she gave birth to twins earlier this week. 

"I don't know," Tingler answered. "Obviously he came out of the game. You're hoping for the best but I think with these hamstrings and soft tissue, you don't really know. You don't really know until the next couple days and see how he responds so I don't want to speculate or anything like that. It would just be a guess at this point."

The injury occurred during Lewis's at-bat in the eight inning when he fouled off a pitch. But media and fans thought Lewis looked uncomfortable when he ran out a double-play ball in his previous at-bat. 

"That was the first that he had told us was during that swing. I think the two at-bats before he had the infield hit so he was getting down the line," said Tingler. "He's been battling some bruised heels, things like that, so we didn't think much of it. He didn't say anything until that foul ball down the right field line."

Lewis has not been able to avoid injuries since the Twins drafted him first overall in 2017. He's torn his ACL twice and suffered an oblique strain on July 1, just one month after he returned from his second ACL injury in 15 months. 

Since returning from the oblique injury on Aug. 15 Lewis is 6th in the majors in homers (11), first in RBI (37) and he's slashing .295/.386/.607 (.992 OPS). Losing him now would be like losing an MVP candidate. 

With Lewis likely out for at least a short while and Carlos Correa dealing with aggravation of the plantar fasciitis in his heel, the Twins have decisions to make as they play the final 10 games of the regular season. (Update: Correa has been placed on the 10-day IL).

Minnesota's magic number to clinch the division is three, so any combination of Twins wins and Guardians losses will get the job done. They're a virtual lock to win the division and host a best-of-three playoff series against the Blue Jays, Rangers or Mariners, all of whom are within one game of each other in the race for the last two wild card spots. 

Do the Twins rest Lewis and Correa the rest of the regular season and bring them back as healthy as possible for the playoffs? Do they give both of them a week to recover and then get them some at-bats against the Rockies in the final series of the regular season, serving as a tune-up for the postseason?

Those seem like possibilities if both are deemed healthy enough to actually play.