MINNEAPOLIS — There was some concern in Minnesota Twins camp over the weekend when slumping catcher Ryan Jeffers popped out several times.But as quickly as those doubts arose, they’ve suddenly vanished.Jeffers homered for a second game in a row on Tuesday night and is back to providing outstanding production. A free agent after the season, Jeffers also tripled to start what could be the biggest month of his career and the Twins offense broke out with a 10-run inning en route to a 15-2 victory over Detroit.Royce Lewis homered as part of a big night, Kody Clemens also went deep and Kaelen Culpepper drove in three runs for the Twins, who won their third in a row to remain 3 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the American League wild-card race.
Lucky #13 for Jeffers pic.twitter.com/oIYU8UdiP9
— Twins.TV (@twinstv) September 2, 2026At the center of the team’s 13-hit attack was Jeffers, who once again isn’t missing the pitches he should hit.“It just looks like he’s in a better spot,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “He’s staying back, he’s seeing the ball. He’s one of the elite guys at controlling the zone, not only on our team, but I think in the game. And when you see him start to stay on balance, then we get the swings we’ve seen over the last few days.”Though he’d struggled throughout most of August, Jeffers only felt as if he reached a bad spot over the weekend against the Chicago White Sox. Up until then, he at least liked his process and approach, believing he was simply missing pitches.Then he hit a rough patch.It began with an 87-degree foul out to White Sox catcher Drew Romo in the first inning on Friday, a frame in which his teammates tagged opposing pitcher Luis Castillo for three runs.The next time up, Jeffers struck out looking.In the fourth inning, Jeffers popped out to Romo again.He struck out in his next at-bat and then grounded out to end Friday’s game with two runners on and the Twins trailing by three.Jeffers then entered Saturday’s game as a pinch hitter and popped out.“It was like three days really,” Jeffers said. “That White Sox series was frustrating. … Baseball, you fall into patterns that you don’t want to fall into without knowing. That’s kind of the nature of this game. But the other side of that is, the faster you can make the adjustment back to the league, back to what you’re doing wrong, the quicker you can bounce out of it.”Through Saturday, Jeffers was hitting .218/.322/.295 with no home runs and six RBIs in 90 August plate appearances. He walked 12 times and struck out 16 in that span.
