MINNEAPOLIS — On Prince Day at Target Field, Carlos Correa and the Minnesota Twins couldn’t help but “go crazy” in Thursday night’s 6-2 win over the Oakland Athletics
Correa paid homage to the Minneapolis music icon after his two-run homer in the seventh inning, donning a purple vest and grabbing an inflatable purple guitar to celebrate the blast with his teammates when he returned to the dugout.
Correa said the post-homer celebration was something the Twins cooked up before the game.
“I’m like, ‘This is creative. I love this,'” Correa said of his reaction to seeing the vest and guitar during pregame. “I was like, ‘I want to hit a home run so bad!’ It happened in the last at-bat, but it happened. It’s a great idea. I loved it.”
One day after the Twins had a season-high 24 hits against the Rockies, Minnesota banged out 13 hits — 12 singles and Correa’s homer.
Correa, who went 5-for-6 on Wednesday, singled in his first two at-bats. Then, with Lewis on base and two out in the seventh, he launched a hanging breaking ball from reliever Sean Newcomb 394 feet, into the second deck in left field.
Correa has 14 hits in his past five games, raising his batting average from .255 to .299.
“He’s putting on a show right now. It’s impressive,” said Royce Lewis, who is 11-for-32 with four home runs since he returned June 3 after missing two months with a strained quad.
Byron Buxton had three hits and drove in two runs, and Lewis and Austin Martin had two hits apiece as the Twins won for the fourth time in five games.
Injuries have prevented Buxton, Correa and Lewis from playing together. But, with the trio now healthy, manager Rocco Baldelli hopes the recent offensive surge is a sign of things to come.
“It’s a very dynamic trio of guys,” Baldelli said. “Having them all feeling great, playing great at the same time – this is what happens. They play like this and all of a sudden we’re putting runs on the board, we’re making a lot of different things happen.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.