CHICAGO -- The Bomba Squad is finally getting back together.

The dinged-up Twins may not be fully healthy yet, but they continue to grow healthier by the day -- and the benefits were apparent Saturday.

Max Kepler, who was hit in the elbow by a pitch Tuesday, hit a pair of solo homers, while Nelson Cruz, who fouled a pitch off his left ankle two days ago, returned to the starting lineup with four hits, five RBIs and two homers as the Twins clubbed five long balls in their 10-3 win over the White Sox.

• Box score

“It’s helpful, too, for just the general confidence of all the guys, when they get to look next to them, and look up and down the lineup, and see all the guys that have been out there all year playing,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And as these guys start trickling back in and start feeling good again and getting healthy, that only continues to build as time goes on.”

Cruz mashed an opposite-field two-run homer in the first inning before adding a hustle double in the third, an RBI single in the seventh and capped things off with a towering blast over the center-field batter’s eye in the ninth that traveled a projected 469 feet, per Statcast, the Twins’ longest homer of 2019 and tied for their third-longest of the Statcast era.

“There were some people audibly excited,” Baldelli said. “But I would also say there were some people that probably didn't say anything at all, because when you see something like that, sometimes you just take it in and enjoy it. Not many balls get hit like that in the middle of the field.”

Cruz fell a triple shy of the cycle as he notched his second four-hit game of the season.

“I think I was able to see the ball good and swing at strikes, something I could put good wood on it,” Cruz said. “I didn't even know I needed a triple for that. I knew it earlier, but I forgot when I was hitting.”

Meanwhile, Kepler hammered a solo shot to right field in the fifth and added a flare down the left-field line in the seventh that snuck over the wall, a projected 333 feet from home plate, for the first opposite-field homer of his career. Kepler’s third multi-homer game of the season gave him a team-leading 21 homers, surpassing his career high of 20 from last season.

“You never know until the ball comes down, but it was a quality swing, and it's very nice when a hitter gets rewarded, really, for putting a good swing on the ball, staying on a ball,” Baldelli said. “Staying in the middle of the field ... and just trying to put a good swing on the ball instead of turning and burning.”

Both Kepler and Eddie Rosario have eclipsed the 20-homer mark before the All-Star break, becoming the first pair of Twins teammates to do so since Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison in 1964.

“We've hit some balls over the fence this year,” Baldelli said. “Today was another game where we were able to do it. Again, when you do that, they matter. Those home runs matter. They're not just talking points. They actually change the game in your favor very quickly. And when you have a lineup full of guys that can do it, it becomes just a very dangerous proposition up and down the lineup.”

And all this is not to mention the much-needed returns of Byron Buxton and Marwin Gonzalez off the injured list, which gave the Twins an important boost to their outfield defense.

This proved significant in the fourth inning. The White Sox mounted a threat against Twins starter Michael Pineda when a two-out triple by Yolmer Sanchez was followed by a line drive to right by Zack Collins, but Kepler, in right field due to Buxton’s return, was able to make a sliding grab on a ball with an expected batting average of .610 to end the threat.

Kepler was pulled from the game in the ninth inning as a precaution for a bruised right knee that was aggravated on that catch, but Baldelli expects his right fielder to be fine.

Quotable

“We were talking with [bench coach Derek Shelton]. We were wondering if, with a fungo in his hand, he could hit it twice and get it that far. We're still not sure if he can, or if any of us can. It was pretty impressive.” -- Baldelli, on Cruz’s 469-foot blast