Royce Lewis excels in Minnesota Twins win a year to the day he tore his ACL

A year ago to the day that he suffered a torn ACL, Royce Lewis was a key factor in the Minnesota Twins' 7-5 win over the Houston Astros on Monday at Minute Maid Park.

In the third inning during his second at-bat, the 2017 No. 1 overall pick hit a monster three-run home run off J.P. France to put the Twins on the board first. The ball doinked off the right field foul pole and Lewis, 23, clapped his hands in joy as he started to round the bases. Once he crossed home plate, he gave a high five and a hug to Carlos Correa and Alex Kirilloff, who scored with him.

Then, in the ninth inning with two outs and the Twins down 5-4, Lewis hit a pitch from Ryan Pressly for a line drive that plopped into center field. The single sent Kyle Farmer to home to tie the game.

"That's what I live and dream for," Lewis said after the game. "That's what I want and I want to be in those situations. I was just looking for that slider from Pressly and he gave it to me."

The next play, Max Kepler grounded out to end the inning.

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The game went into extra innings, where a two-run home run from Ryan Jeffers gave the Twins the win over the defending World Series champions in the first game of a three-game series. The Twins have lost six of eight series this month.

Last May, Lewis tore his ACL for the second time in 18 months during a game against the Kansas City Royals when he ran into the center field wall making a catch for an out. The injury cut his debut season to only 12 games.

“This is a culmination of a lot of hard work from Royce. I’m excited to see Royce back out on the field," manager Rocco Baldelli said on Saturday when announcing that Lewis was activated from the 60-day injured list. "He can jolt you with the enthusiasm and all of the exciting things that he can do, but he’s a good young player and he’s had a long road to get back to this point."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Royce Lewis helps Twins to victory a year after tearing ACL