CLEVELAND >> Trevor Larnach can pinpoint what wasn’t working for him during the early part of the season, but he still can’t explain why.

“I was coming up out of the ground, out of my hip, my hands were climbing up,” the outfielder said. “I think it was just baseball doing its thing, making it hard on you.”

Those first two-plus weeks were hard on Larnach. In his first 18 games, he went 11 for 61 (.180) with just one extra base-hit — a double — and four RBIs.

It wasn’t until the end of the last road trip in Atlanta that he started feeling more like himself. He was hitting balls hard.

The decision-making was there. Results would soon follow.

“I was hitting the ball hard again,” Larnach said. “That was the tell-tale sign the work we’re doing is improving. … Keeping that same work ethic and trusting it. If it shows up, then it shows up and that’s great.”

In his past 10 games coming into Tuesday’s contest in Cleveland, Larnach has put it all together, hitting .316 with four home runs, 10 RBIs and a 1.024 OPS. He had at least one hit in nine of his past 10 games.

His numbers have begun to pick up after a start that had him feeling as if he were “fighting for my life just to walk or get one hit.”

“He’s swinging the bat really good right now,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s the one that’s making it happen. He never got down. He never changed what he was trying to do before the game. He’s found a nice little routine for himself, something that works.”

Bride starts strong

Jonah Bride was just 4 for 40 when the Twins swung a trade with Miami for the recently designated-for-assignment infielder. When he first arrived — he was added to the roster on April 17 — hitting coach Matt Borgschulte asked him to lower his hands.

“Right away, when I came in, that’s the first thing they talked to me about was getting those hands down,” Bride said.

His hands are now lower than they’ve ever been.

He has gotten immediate results. Through his first six games as a Twin heading into Tuesday, he was 7 for 14. Three hits came in Monday’s victory.

“It’s a tough game; you’re going to fail a lot. Starting the way I did with Miami wasn’t ideal,” Bride said. “But I think it’s made me better, for sure, even in the long term. It’s going to happen. Coming over here, they gave me some adjustments and I went from that. Obviously, it’s got me on the right track and I’m going to continue working on that.”