Twins beat Mets 6-3 despite Carlos Correa, Matt Wallner exiting with injuries

For as poorly as the Twins have played this season, they sure don’t like to make things easy on themselves.

Take Tuesday night’s 6-3 win over the New York Mets as an example. Carlos Correa and Matt Wallner exited with injuries. They ran into an out at third base to end an inning and failed an attempt at a squeeze bunt. The ninth inning started with an error when first baseman Ty France dropped a throw, and Jhoan Duran nearly made another error when he bounced a throw to second on a force out.

It wasn’t enough that the Twins’ offense tallied a season-high 13 hits and scored runs in five consecutive innings, backing a solid start from Bailey Ober. There was still plenty of drama in the ninth inning before Duran secured his first save of the season. Duran, who let out a yell after the final out, struck out Francisco Lindor with a 102-mph fastball to strand two runners on base.

“There was a lot that went our way and a lot that didn’t go our way in this game,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “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.”

The third inning encapsulated some of the wackiness. With runners on the corners and one out, DaShawn Keirsey Jr., who replaced Wallner (left hamstring tightness), attempted a squeeze bunt and popped the ball back to the mound. The next batter, France, hit a ground ball to shortstop that should’ve ended the inning, but Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor fumbled it for an error.

Correa followed Lindor’s error with an RBI single to center two pitches later, but France was thrown out attempting to advance from first to third base.

The Twins, despite their mistakes, created some of their own luck, too. Byron Buxton led off the fifth inning with a single to left field. He easily stole second and advanced to third on a groundout. The Mets drew their infield in, and France hit a two-hopper directly at second baseman Luisangel Acuña, but it still didn’t matter with Buxton’s speed.

Running on contact, Buxton slid under a tag from catcher Luis Torrens. As soon as plate umpire Nestor Ceja signaled safe, Buxton jumped up, pumped his arm and let out a yell.

“That’s fun to me,” said Buxton, who somehow avoided a bat on his headfirst slide. “I love when he tells me I got a contact play because I always know it’s going to be close. It changed that momentum of the game to get us going again.”

The Twins pulled ahead in the fourth inning, one inning before Buxton’s magic, after Trevor Larnach was hit by a pitch and Ryan Jeffers came within inches of a two-run homer. Jeffers lifted a sinker from Mets starter Tylor Megill to the top of the left-field wall, the ball bouncing back into play, which turned a homer into an automatic double after a replay review.

Harrison Bader drove in the go-ahead run with an infield single to third base.

“We’re hungry,” said Ober, who permitted five hits and three runs in 6⅓ innings. “Obviously, 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.”

MLB standings

Edouard Julien lined a two-out RBI single to left field in the sixth inning. In the seventh, Brooks Lee, who replaced Correa (left wrist soreness), hammered an elevated fastball for his first home run of the season. Lee had only one homer over his last 150 plate appearances last year.

“The thing of nothing going our way is not sustainable,” Jeffers said. “There’s going to be some, some batted ball luck coming our way, just from how unlucky we’ve been.”

After the final out in the eighth inning, the bells started to ring at Target Field to signal for Duran’s entrance. Duran heard fans screaming, put his head down and started heading toward the field before teammates told him to stop. He had to wait for a replay review. It was a three-minute wait.

When Duran finally was cleared to run toward the mound, there was an issue with his walkout music, so they had to play a different song.