When the Twins demoted a struggling Royce Lewis to the minors in mid-May, he crushed Triple-A pitching for three weeks to force his way back to the majors far sooner than expected and then kept rolling against big-league pitching. Lewis hit .284/.345/.507 with 10 homers in his first 55 games after rejoining the Twins.
Unfortunately, whatever clicked for Lewis in May has now unclicked in a way that leaves him struggling every bit as much, and for an even longer period of time, as he was leading into the demotion. Lewis has hit .182 with one homer in his last 35 games, including an equally ugly 34-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Lewis' batting average in 35 games since mid-August is slightly higher than it was in 31 games prior to the demotion, but he's still hitting .182. And this time around, that has come with fewer walks, less power, and much worse control of the strike zone. And his 23 wRC+ since mid-August is the second-worst mark in MLB.