SEATTLE -- Thursday’s suffocating effort from Seattle right-hander George Kirby notwithstanding, this road trip to open the second half has offered much more of what the Twins had hoped to see from their offense: discerning at-bats, the ability to drive the ball, a willingness to use the whole field.

And until Kirby and the Mariners blanked the Twins, 5-0, in the series finale, the offense had picked up, plating five or more runs in six consecutive games for the first time since the end of April to spur a 5-2 road trip that helped the Twins regain and maintain first place in the American League Central.

Much of that success has come from youngsters -- including the red-hot Edouard Julien and Alex Kirilloff -- and a resurgent Max Kepler. But it really starts at the top with a surging Carlos Correa, who sat out Thursday’s game but has finally found some consistency at the plate by becoming an everyday leadoff hitter for the first time in his career.

“I think just [manager] Rocco [Baldelli] putting me in the leadoff spot gave me a new perspective,” Correa said. “Instead of trying to go deep on every pitch, it was, ‘Put the barrel on the ball and let something happen.’ That's been allowing me to get on base and allowing me to have better results. Credit to Rocco for putting me in that spot. It changed my mentality.”

After mechanical tweaks, approach tweaks and everything in between in an effort to turn around a .212/.287/.403 start in his first 71 games -- which coincided with continued underperformance from the Minnesota offense -- that bump up the order might finally have done the trick.

Instead of feeling the pressure to be one of the team’s primary run-producers by driving the ball, Correa took it upon himself to think like a leadoff hitter, focusing on making it to first base by spraying line drives and simplifying. Since his move to the top of the order on June 30, Correa is hitting .312/.382/.443 for an .825 OPS, with a 28.6% line-drive rate that has nearly doubled his 17.6% line-drive rate before the move.

“He doesn’t need to try to lift the ball, ever -- he really doesn’t,” Baldelli said. “He’s always had his success, and continues to have success at this moment, with just those shorter, more compact, direct strokes.”

On the one hand, Correa has finally found some semblance of consistency amid one of the worst statistical seasons of his career. But on the other hand, the Twins didn’t bring Correa back on a six-year, $200 million deal for him to be a spray hitter at the top of a lineup, with the hopes that the likes of Julien, Kirilloff and Donovan Solano will drive him in.

But Correa felt that he wasn’t helping the team as much as he could while in his funk, and although he isn’t using the power element of his considerable skillset for now, he’s all right with that, because he’s contributing to the offense more consistently.

“As a leadoff guy now, I'm just trying to be on base for the guys behind me,” he said. “That's how I feel like I'm going to help the team win ballgames moving forward. The mentality is different, but at the same time, it's just trying to catch the ball on the barrel. … I guess when you're hitting two, three [in the lineup], I was just trying to go deep every at-bat.”

And Correa’s struggles weren’t just going to disappear overnight; this is a process, he says, of just finding some consistency, to which he’ll eventually add more of the power element back.

“Just got to try to build some consistency, which I was not able to do in the first half,” he said. “Put some good games together, put some good weeks together, and then the confidence is building up and you can start lifting the ball. It's a process, but I don't plan to be a slap hitter."

But for now, with leadoff man Correa setting the tone for the productive youngsters behind him, the Twins seem to finally have found something that works -- and they’ll take it.

“It sets a tone,” Baldelli said. “It kind of models what we would like to see from a lot of our guys. … It’s easier to carry that over when you see someone doing consistently.”