Jeffers, Buxton heating up with homers

PHOENIX -- It’s probably too late for Ryan Jeffers to make a serious push for the All-Star Game, as had seemed possible -- and perhaps even likely -- as he essentially carried the Twins’ offense through much of its inconsistency in early 2024.

But finally, he feels like himself again -- and it’s showing.

Jeffers’ clutch three-run homer in the seventh inning of the Twins’ series opener against the D-backs on Tuesday night helped Minnesota's offense break through. It also broke Jeffers' home run drought that had lasted nearly a month, but it still wasn't enough. Jorge Alcala ceded a late Arizona run to send Minnesota to a 5-4 loss at Chase Field.

“I know I had a good first month, and you kind of get that All-Star Game sight in your eyes, and then you suck for a month and you fall out of the conversation,” Jeffers said. “It's hard, but remembering how long the season is and how [even after] having a bad month, you can still so easily flip it around.”

The last few adjustments came within the last week, Jeffers said, and it got him back to this point where he has quietly put together a six-game hitting streak, extended Tuesday night by the sky-high blast that ruined an otherwise efficient and effective start from D-backs right-hander Brandon Pfaadt.

Carlos Santana had walked earlier in the seventh, while Byron Buxton had singled as part of a three-hit game that continued his recent awakening. All that set up the big swing from Jeffers, who was hitting .290 with a .997 OPS for the season on May 14 but had hit .161 with a .513 OPS in his 28 appearances since then, entering Tuesday.

Jeffers said it helped to get back to a more Spring Training-like mindset, focused strictly on the process instead of the outcome at the plate after finding himself getting caught in between in his approach and getting away from what made him so successful early in the season.

That’s why, even after he lined out sharply to left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to end the game in the top of the ninth after Buxton had doubled to get the tying run in scoring position, Jeffers was more focused on the continued good that had come of that plate appearance, in which he’d hit the ball at 103 mph with a .940 expected batting average, per Statcast.

“It feels not great walking in the clubhouse after a game like this where you’re thinking, ‘We did a lot right and really played OK,’” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You almost feel like you can win a game like that more times than you can lose a game like that, the way we were playing.”

That was the story of the game for the Twins. They’d clubbed more hard-hit balls than the D-backs, 14-9, while Arizona plated the go-ahead run on a flare and squibber that had measured in at 72.2 and 68.2 mph, respectively, off Jorge Alcala in the bottom of the seventh.

But they continue to put forth the process that has served them well. And, now, Jeffers’ process has finally caught up, as has that of Buxton, who fell a triple shy of the cycle on Tuesday after he plated the Twins’ first run on a 405-foot solo homer in the fifth and doubled with Minnesota down to its final out in the ninth.

Buxton, too, is heating up with a .345/.379/.630 slash line for a 1.009 OPS since June 7 -- and the Twins figure that if two of their slumping core hitters are turning around like this, they’re in good shape.

“It's just getting into a good position to hit and just not overthink it,” Buxton said. “Just thinking a lot. It's hard to think and go in there and hit. Just trying to simplify it. It took longer than I expected, but it's good to feel good the last few days squaring the ball up.”

Even with Buxton and Jeffers slumping for much of late May and early June, the Twins ranked fourth in the AL with a 117 wRC+ and fifth with 171 runs since May 15 -- and now, those slumps seem to be at an end.

“It’s about as deep as you can get a lineup,” Jeffers said. “For me and Bux to be hitting seventh and eighth in a lineup that is producing like we do, it’s pretty scary.”