DETROIT -- Royce Lewis didn’t even celebrate his return to the roster with his customary home run in his first game back -- but there doesn’t seem to be much pressure on Lewis as just one part of the Twins’ upward surge right now.

No need to stress when a healthy Byron Buxton continues to play like a bona fide superstar and staff ace Pablo López seems to be in the midst of stabilizing a once-rocky season while the rest of the lineup also creates plenty of opportunities and power -- as the Twins did aplenty in a convincing 9-3 victory over the Tigers at Comerica Park to begin their Trade Deadline road trip on Friday.

“Probably couldn’t ask for much more,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Starting the game out swinging the bats great, coming back off an off-day and hitting balls hard from the start was a really great thing. It’s not that easy.”

Buxton has been making it look pretty easy, though.

Already carrying a 1.114 OPS in July entering the night, Buxton stayed red-hot with a first-inning solo blast, when he went back-to-back with Trevor Larnach to give Minnesota a big start, then later added an RBI double as part of a three-run fourth inning.

The best way to know that Buxton is really feeling it is that the homer came when he was able to sit back on a slider -- and, in fact, all four of Buxton’s long balls in July have come against breaking balls, which is quite significant considering his longstanding show of mostly crushing fastballs.

Baldelli and the coaching staff had actually noticed that during the game -- after all the talk throughout the season of how Buxton’s better knee health allowed him to ground his swing more effectively, they got that distinct feeling watching even his mistimed swings on Friday: This is what it should look like.

“The way he’s staying under his legs, these are powerful swings,” Baldelli said. “These are swings where he’s on off-speed pitches, he can get on top of fastballs. He’s feeling good about himself right now, and he should.”

At times over the years, the power has been there at the cost of average -- but this version of Buxton is hitting .280 while playing center field most days and not sacrificing that power. The scary thing is that he doesn’t even feel like he’s at his best at the plate.

“Yeah, it's still a work in progress,” Buxton said. “Just more me, in my opinion, needing to get a little bit more consistent swinging the bat again a little bit, and letting the ball travel more to me.”

Coupled with three-hit nights from both Brooks Lee and Christian Vázquez -- who also went deep, along with Matt Wallner -- the Twins never let up, taking advantage of their improving health situation after a very banged-up and injury-depleted version of their roster still had enough might to win a series against the MLB-best Phillies earlier in the week.

And still, there’s even more to come, with Jose Miranda -- one of the hottest hitters in baseball before his injury -- seemingly set to come off the IL on Saturday, Carlos Correa perhaps not too far behind him and the potential for the club to add by next Tuesday’s Trade Deadline.

“When everybody is healthy, it's a different story,” Vázquez said. “We have a deep lineup. We're pitching good. I think everybody is putting something on the table together to win. If we're healthy, watch out.”

Ultimately, no matter what happens at this Trade Deadline, the Twins will have to rely mostly on the star power within -- Buxton, Correa, Lewis, López, Jhoan Duran and others -- to be the foundation of their sustained success and of a deep playoff run, if they’re fortunate enough to get that far.

Another good note in that regard was that López continued the early makings of a second-half turnaround from his 5.11 ERA before the All-Star break by tossing seven strong innings of two-run ball, escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the seventh with a groundout and two popouts to cap his 97-pitch effort.

“You've got to see it as a challenge, like, ‘OK, I'm still here. I'm glad that this is my game, these are my runners, let me prove to myself and everyone else that I can get out of it,’” López said.

This is what the foundation of Minnesota’s success will look like the rest of the way -- and that foundation is almost whole again.