HOUSTON -- It’s probably time to stop talking about Jorge Polanco’s surgically repaired ankle and fully embrace the notion that his All-Star production from 2019 looks to be here to stay.

Polanco got off to a slow start this season and that right ankle did flare up again with a minor issue in late May, but since then, he’s been one of the most productive hitters in the league -- as he showed the Astros on Sunday. The second baseman crushed two more homers to bring his season total to a team-leading 20, and his four RBIs led the way in a 7-5 win at Minute Maid Park that secured a victorious four-game series against the AL West-leading Astros.

In doing so, the Twins also capped a winning road trip, going 5-4 against the Cardinals, Reds and Astros after trading away José Berríos, Nelson Cruz, Hansel Robles and J.A. Happ at the July 30 Trade Deadline, with more than enough energy in the dugout and contributions from throughout their new-look 26-man roster, to boot. 

"It was awesome,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The way our guys went out there and competed all series, really the whole road trip, was exactly what we were looking for. … Took some big individual efforts to get a great team win, but really, it was a lot of different guys, once again. When you play against good teams, you need that.”

A balanced attack from nearly the entire Twins offense fueled Minnesota’s first winning series on the road in nearly two months, with five different lineup spots reaching base three times. Miguel Sanó crushed a homer to the railroad tracks high above left field as one of those players, while Max Kepler recorded his first three-hit game since Opening Day and both Luis Arraez and Trevor Larnach singled twice and walked.

Still, Polanco packed the most punch with an opposite-field shot to left in the fifth and a three-run blast in the sixth in addition to his third-inning walk.

At the end of April, Polanco’s season OPS stood at .555. A month later, it had crept up to .697. That pushed up to .744 by the end of June, and .792 when he finished up his July.

Put another way, Polanco now owns a .968 OPS since July 1, and his 11 homers in that span tie him with Blue Jays outfielder George Springer for the AL lead.

“I don't know what to say except he is really feeling it at the plate,” Baldelli said. “The quality of at-bats is just very, very high across the board. He's always had the contact skills. He's always been able to spray the ball around the ballpark. When he's getting a mistake, he's really hammering it, hitting the ball hard, really, to all fields. He's a very confident hitter right now, as he should be.” 

The issues with his right ankle that surfaced in the middle of 2019 and lingered throughout ‘20 largely sapped power from his left-handed swing -- but that swing is clearly fine now. Just consider that fifth-inning solo shot, which carried an estimated 350 feet out to the Crawford Boxes in left field for the first opposite-field homer of his career from either side of the plate.

"[The opposite-field shot] says a lot,” Polanco said. “Trying to stay back, get a good pitch to hit, and I drove it the other way. It felt good to hit a homer oppo." 

His sixth-inning blast off reliever Phil Maton looked much more familiar, a pulled fly ball into the right-field bleachers that drove in three to give the Twins a 7-3 lead -- one that proved more than necessary after the Astros scored in the seventh on Aledmys Díaz’s RBI double and again in the eighth on a solo blast by Carlos Correa to close the gap. 

That meant the win didn’t come easily, especially as young right-hander Jorge Alcala allowed the Correa blast as part of his continued transition to the setup role, and the Twins had to continue leaning on less-proven bullpen options like Juan Minaya and Danny Coulombe in a tight game. 

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But still, the Twins emerged from Houston having won both of their games started by rookies -- Griffin Jax and Bailey Ober -- with that much more experience under the belts of those out to prove themselves like Alcala, Minaya and Coulombe and the collective grit of Friday’s 11-inning victory also permeating the dugout.

"It feels good as a team to come here and steal three out of four,” veteran closer Alex Colomé said. “Basically, it is a learning process for the younger guys. It is more experience, and that's a good team we are playing. They are first place in their division for a reason.” 

Polanco doesn’t really have anything to prove -- but his renewed excellence certainly helped the Twins reward his teammates’ efforts with a victory, and they’ll always take that, now and moving forward. 

“We have seen this type of Jorge Polanco before,” Baldelli said. “This is something that this isn't the first time that we've seen this, but again, he's really finding himself and there are times where his production is carrying us in a lot of different ways. This is one of those times."