MINNEAPOLIS — They lost Matt Wallner and Carlos Correa to injuries Tuesday night, and yet the Minnesota Twins still somehow won.
If anyone in the team’s marketing department is looking for a slogan that properly defines the 2025 Twins, perhaps they should consider: Nothing ever comes easy.
The Twins probably played their best game of the season, a 6-3 victory over the New York Mets that included aggression on the bases, productive outs and clutch moments littered throughout the lineup. Those positives, of course, were countered by two more injuries to key players and a shaky ninth inning in which another reliever made a poor throw.
Wallner exited in the first inning with left hamstring tightness. Then, a sore left wrist that has bothered Correa since last season resulted in his fifth-inning departure. Both players are scheduled to undergo MRIs on Wednesday morning.
Carlos Correa is hurt. After swinging at a pitch, he has left the game due to a wrist issue. #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/i9YTbkl6UG
— Talkin’ Twins (@TalkinTwins) April 16, 2025
Even with more uncertainty ahead, the Twins clubhouse was energized Tuesday by securing the type of collective win that has largely eluded them throughout their 6-12 start.
“We’re hungry,” said starting pitcher Bailey Ober, who earned the victory with 6 1/3 solid innings. “This is not the start we’ve wanted to get off to. But you have a bunch of guys that are grinders and are going to put their nose down and work really hard. A game like this is fun. We had a lot of good stuff going for us. … It’s an all-around team win, and those are the vibes you’re looking for.”
The Twins scored runs in five straight innings for the first time since last August. They moved runners over effectively, had big hits with men in scoring position and added on when it was necessary.
But no run seemed to highlight the effort more than Byron Buxton’s in the fifth inning, one that extended the lead to 4-2.
Rocco Baldelli: “It’s really fun when you see Buck doing stuff like that. Not many guys in the league are going to be safe on that ball. But he out-runs the whole play and he’s safe. It’s exhilarating watching him do that.”pic.twitter.com/feqWs1wzFt
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) April 16, 2025
Buxton singled, stole second, advanced to third on a DaShawn Keirsey Jr. grounder to second and scored when the contact play finally worked. Ty France hit a grounder to second base, and Buxton made an outstanding slide under the tag of Mets catcher Luis Torrens to increase the lead.
“We just picked those guys up,” Buxton said. “It’s just one of those things where we try to push that line down to make sure we’re picking each other up. Tonight was a perfect example of us making sure we’ve got each other’s backs.”
Their backs were up against it immediately.
All season, the Twins have been without Royce Lewis, who isn’t likely to return to the field until late April or early May as he recovers from a hamstring strain he suffered in spring training.
Starting pitcher Pablo López suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain in his start at the Kansas City Royals last Tuesday. López was placed on the 15-day injured list Thursday and hopes to return when he’s eligible to come off.
And earlier Tuesday, the Twins placed infielder Jose Miranda on the seven-day IL at Triple-A St. Paul with a strained left hand, an injury he sustained in the strangest way possible.
A Twins official said Miranda was shopping at Target on the team’s day off Monday and was purchasing a case of water, which began to slip from his grip. In his attempt to catch the case, Miranda hurt his hand. The pain became more noticeable as the night went on.
It was only fitting, then, that Wallner was removed in the first inning with a tight hamstring after he legged out an infield single.
“It just felt weird,” Wallner said. “Something I had never felt. … Just tight. It’s not painful, so that’s good, I guess. I really don’t know because I’ve never done anything similar.”
Four innings later, it was Correa’s turn.
After he fouled off a pitch, Correa, who earlier singled in a run, appeared to grimace and grabbed the back of his left hand. Correa briefly chatted with manager Rocco Baldelli and a trainer and left without taking a practice swing.
“Since last year, I’ve been dealing with it,” Correa said. “But we did an MRI last year, too, on it, and it didn’t show anything too serious. It’s just about keeping it strong and making sure that it’s stable, just strengthening it. …
“And I just felt, like, a tweak on the swing-and-miss, and then when I hit the foul ball, I felt pain in the area. But get it checked out, get an MRI tomorrow. It shouldn’t be anything too serious.”
The Twins responded to the adversity as well as they have all season.
Ober shook off a pair of solo homers to pitch into the seventh inning, working efficiently before handing it over to the bullpen. Edouard Julien stretched the lead to 5-2 in the sixth with a two-out RBI single. After replacing Correa, Brooks Lee made it a 6-3 game with a solo homer in the seventh inning.
1st round tripper for Brooks this year 🥳 pic.twitter.com/fXBQaPDpbu
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 16, 2025
“Beautiful, beautiful,” Correa said. “It’s a good team. We’ve just got to keep piling these wins, piling these good ABs and take off from there.”
Still, there was a hiccup before it ended.
Jhoan Duran took over in the ninth inning with the Twins ahead by three and in search of their first save of the season. But the Twins challenged the final play of the bottom of the eighth inning unsuccessfully, which set off a chain of strange events.
First, Duran had to pause before taking the field, as the inning technically wasn’t finished. Then, after umpires confirmed the call on the field, an inning-ending out at first, the scoreboard crew didn’t play the correct song for Duran’s entrance, inadvertently playing “Fallout Boy” versus the closer’s fiery mix.
The inning nearly blew up in the Twins’ faces.
France committed an error to start the ninth. A night after two relievers had throwing errors, Duran fielded a comebacker and threw wildly to second base; the ball bounced, hitting Willi Castro in the face before he picked it up in time for the forceout. After retiring the next batter, Duran yielded an infield single and fell behind Francisco Lindor 3-1 in the count, which would have loaded the bases for Juan Soto.
But Duran battled back and struck out Lindor with a 101.7 mph fastball to end it.
“There’s a toughness factor,” Baldelli said. “There was a lot that went our way. There was a lot that didn’t go our way in this game. It didn’t stop us, didn’t get in our way from just continually doing positive things. It’s not about just stopping negative things. It’s about going out there and getting the job actually done. And many, many guys did that on both sides of the ball.”
(Photo of Matt Wallner and manager Rocco Baldelli: Abbie Parr / Associated Press)
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