MINNEAPOLIS — On Prince Day at Target Field, Carlos Correa and the Minnesota Twins couldn’t help but “go crazy” in Thursday night’s 6-2 win over the Oakland Athletics
Correa paid homage to the Minneapolis music icon after his two-run homer in the seventh inning, donning a purple vest and hat and grabbing an inflatable purple guitar to celebrate the blast with his teammates when he returned to the dugout.
Correa said the post-homer celebration was something the Twins cooked up before the game. Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez already had the inflatable guitar from a previous season’s Prince Night giveaway. The vest and hat rounded out the look.
“I’m like, ‘This is creative. I love this,'” Correa said of his reaction to seeing the purple celebration props during pregame. “I was like, ‘I want to hit a home run so bad!’ It happened in the last at-bat, but it happened. It’s a great idea. I loved it.”
One day after the Twins had a season-high 24 hits against the Rockies, Minnesota banged out 13 hits — 12 singles and Correa’s homer.
Correa, who went 5-for-6 on Wednesday, singled in his first two at-bats. Then, with Royce Lewis on base and two out in the seventh, he launched a hanging breaking ball from reliever Sean Newcomb 394 feet, into the second deck in left field, allowing the Twins to break out their new celebration.
“I’m all for finding things sometimes not related to baseball that can bring us closer not only as players but also as people, as friends, as brothers,” Lopez said. “I always like finding little things, little opportunities to make something cool happen.”
Correa has 14 hits in his past five games, raising his batting average from .255 to .299.
“He’s putting on a show right now. It’s impressive,” said Lewis, who is 11-for-32 with four home runs since he returned June 3 after missing two months with a strained quad.
Byron Buxton had three hits and drove in two runs, and Lewis and Austin Martin had two hits apiece as the Twins won for the fourth time in five games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.