MINNEAPOLIS -- Father Time has done nothing to slow the production of Twins slugger
\n\n.@ncboomstick23 became the 6th #MNTwins player to have a 4-extra-base-hit game (7th occurrence).
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) August 21, 2019
With a #Bomba and 3 doubles, it was the 1st 4-XBH game of his career! pic.twitter.com/GhTdVk7KNd
But really, this kind of performance has just been par for the course for Cruz this second half.\n\nIt’s a reflection of how thoroughly hot Cruz has been that Tuesday’s effort marked the fourth time he recorded at least 10 total bases in a game since the Midsummer Classic -- unsurprisingly, best in the Majors. Cruz became the sixth player in Twins history to knock four extra-base hits in a game, and the first since Michael Cuddyer on Sept. 21, 2005.\n\n
The scary thing -- for opposing pitchers, that is -- is that Cruz still feels like he’s getting warmed up after his stint on the IL.\n\n“It definitely takes a few days to get the timing, especially for breaking pitches,” Cruz said. “I feel like yesterday I wasn’t tracking well; I feel like today, it was better.”\n\nSure doesn’t seem like it with the way he’s playing.\n\nCruz is now 6-for-10 with two singles, three doubles and a homer since his return from the injured list. Significantly, six of his 10 batted balls since his injury have been hit in excess of 100 mph, a great sign that the wrist hasn’t affected his ability to barrel the ball. He entered the game second in the Major Leagues to only the Yankees' Aaron Judge in average exit velocity -- and now, he’s finally pain free.\n\n“Even when I came back \\[from the IL for the first time in June\\], I was still sore,” Cruz said. “Now, the second day, I was good. I guess I’ll be able to swing and keep my swing sharp.”
Due to the injury, it had been a while since Baldelli needed to find a new way to describe yet another one of Cruz’s outstanding performances at the plate. The skipper had better get his thesaurus ready if Cruz is going to continue on this tear.\n\n“We’ve run out of words very quickly,” Baldelli said. “We can talk about it and try to figure out cool ways to describe his achievements, but it’s very difficult because he does things that very few players in all of the game can do.”\n\nThe 39-year-old veteran led the Major Leagues with 16 homers and a 1.301 OPS in the second half entering the game, and he wasted little time in adding to those gaudy totals when he muscled a solo shot to left off Reynaldo Lopez in the fourth inning that tied the game at 3.\n\nCruz got a big opportunity with the bases loaded one inning later, when the Twins took advantage of a missed catch error by Jose Abreu with two outs to load the bases. He won a seven-pitch at-bat by cranking a fastball to the right-field wall for a two-run double to give the Twins a lead they would never relinquish.
\n\nAnd though the game was well out of hand by that point, Cruz starred in the Twins’ seven-run outburst in the eighth inning with a pair of ringing doubles into the left-field corner clocked at 112.4 mph and 112.8 mph to cap his four-hit game.\n\n\"Just another day \\[for Cruz\\],” said reliever