Inside The Twins

Watch: Royce Lewis hits Twins' first home run of spring training

Lewis ripped a 1-0 pitch from Zack Littell over the left field wall.
Will Ragatz|
Royce Lewis celebrates the Twins' first home run of spring training
Royce Lewis celebrates the Twins' first home run of spring training | FanDuel Sports Network Sun / MLB.TV

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Minnesota Twins

Who else but Royce Lewis would hit the Twins' first home run of spring training?

In the second inning of Monday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Lewis was all over a 1-0 pitch from Zack Littell, crushing it over the wall in left field. Unfortunately, there's no tracking data available from this game, but that looked like a pretty healthy exit velocity.

It's what Lewis does. In 158 career MLB games between the regular season and playoffs, he's hit 37 home runs. The issue is that he made his big-league debut in May 2022 and hasn't even played a full 162 games in the three seasons since then. Injury issues have kept him from putting an entire season together, but the 25-year-old has had stretches of stardom when he's been on the field.

The Twins are hoping this is the year Lewis stays healthy and shows the baseball world what he's capable of over at least 120 or 130 games. He's had a strong offseason and is looking to bounce back from the first prolonged slump of his MLB career, when he hit .191 with just one homer in the final 42 games of last season.

Read: Twins' Royce Lewis striving for healthy, productive season in 2025

If the Twins are going to get back to the postseason this year, it all starts with their trio of stars — Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton, and Lewis — being in the lineup as much as possible.

The Twins and Rays played in Port Charlotte, FL, today. Right after this story was published, the game was postponed due to heavy rain. Minnesota's third spring training game ends in a 1-1 tie after just two innings.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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