Twins provide Royce Lewis injury update after early exit vs. Reds

While the Minnesota Twins magic number dropped to three on Tuesday, all anyone could think about after the win over Cincinnati was the health of Royce Lewis.

Lewis left Tuesday's game in the top of the eighth inning after coming up lame following an awkward swing. The training staff took a quick look at him before deciding he needed to be pulled from the game, a sight made worse by Lewis' distraught reaction.

As Lewis left the field and entered the team's clubhouse tunnel he threw his helmet and shouted, which pretty much was the sentiment of fans across Twins Territory while doubling as the absolyte last thing anyone wanted to see.

It wasn't just the reaction from Lewis but the context of his injury. Lewis is coming off two ACL tears and has already spent time on the IL this season with another injury, so to see him suffer another setback is devestating on so many levels.

The fact that it's happening just weeks before the postseason begins, one that the Twins figure to be involved in, makes it even worse.

Twins provide Royce Lewis injury update after early exit vs. Reds

After the game, acting manager Jayce Tingler addressed the injury and admitted that it will take a few days before the Twins know the true extent of what Lewis is dealing with.

"You’re hoping for the best, but I think with these hamstrings and soft tissue, you don’t really know. You don’t really know until the next couple of days and see how he responds," Tingler said. "It would just be a guess at this point."

Given the optics of how Lewis left the game, this is a wildly encouraging update. It doesn't seem as though this is as serious as it seemed and thankfully his knee doesn't appear to be part of the issue.

A soft tissue injury is no joke, though, and Lewis isn't out of the woods. The last thing Minnesota needs is to lose perhaps its best and most elextric player for the postseason, and it could be that we've seen the last of Lewis in the regular season. The Twins shutting him down for the last few weeks of September to get him healthy for October makes sense, but only tme will tell what the right path forward is.

All that we do know is that it seems Lewis has avoided the worst case scenario and a major injury.

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