Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton (25), left, celebrates next to New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) after hitting an RBI-single during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
MINNEAPOLIS — All has not gone according to plan for this Minnesota Twins team.
They were just 5-12 to start the year. Then three players went down with injuries over the span of two days.
Yet, they managed to escape this homestand with a series win over the New York Mets (11-7). It was just the second series the Twins (7-12) have won this year, with the other coming against the lowly Chicago White Sox. They walked off New York 4-3 at Target Field on Wednesday to win their second straight game.
David Festa pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings, and Ty France had the walk-off knock in the bottom of the 10th. The Twins survived a three-run eighth that allowed the Mets to tie it.
“There was absolutely no quit,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It was just all toughness.”
Injuries/pregame notes
The Twins were without Carlos Correa, Matt Wallner and Christian Vázquez in Wednesday’s starting lineup. But contributions from Brooks Lee, Ryan Jeffers and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. had helped them even the series on Tuesday.
“The guys really showed up. They came in, great energy. The guys that came into the game played well and made things happen,” Baldelli said. “Sometimes even when you lose one guy during the game, it can hit a team hard.”
The Twins came into Wednesday still waiting to assess the severity of all three injuries. Baldelli indicated they might not all be unavailable, but that official decisions had not been made.
Correa was the only one of the three who eventually did appear in Wednesday’s game, as he entered at shortstop in the ninth inning. He did not have any at-bats. Baldelli said after the game that Wallner will be going on the injured list with a hamstring strain.
Willi Castro also exited late in Wednesday’s game to add another injury to the pile. Baldelli clarified that he has mild right oblique tightness and that it’s not too worrisome.
Originally, the Twins had been planning to face right-hander Griffin Canning in Wednesday’s series finale. After Canning was a late scratch due to illness, the Mets called up 28-year-old right-hander Justin Hagenman as a bulk guy. The plan for the Mets was a bullpen game, with Hagenman eating as much as possible.
Baldelli stressed an adaptable approach out of his team, with no major changes to their preparation.
“I don’t like to overthink these games. I would prefer that our guys just go out there and attack each pitcher as they see them,” Baldelli said before Wednesday’s game. “You’ve gotta be ready to make quick adjustments during the games. And you’ve gotta pay close attention, because you’re only gonna get an inning or two with most of these guys.”
Twins secure a series victory
Outside of the eighth inning, the Twins were fueled by their pitching.
Festa utilized his slider and changeup to set down the Mets 1-2-3 in the first — including the scalding hot Pete Alonso.
Jesse Winker and Brandon Nimmo both hit balls well against Festa to start the second. But, after Winker doubled, former Met Harrison Bader gunned down Winker at the plate on a single by Nimmo.
“I just have tremendous admiration for the players, first and foremost. Every single one of those guys,” Bader said of facing his old squad. “And that’s what this level is about. Everybody wants to do well, but at the end of the day, we really just support everybody, want everybody to be healthy and play their best.”
Festa retired six straight Mets after Bader’s play.
On the Mets’ side, Huascar Brazobán opened for the recently recalled Hagenman. Brazobán cruised through a perfect, 11-pitch first inning, but saw his day come to an end after a leadoff walk in the second. He threw 18 pitches with 10 strikes.
Hagenman entered for his MLB debut with no outs in the second. He surrendered a warning-track flyout, but otherwise threw a spotless first inning in the big leagues. He struck out three of the first four hitters he faced.
He faced some trouble in the third inning, allowing a single by Bader and a hustle double by leadoff hitter Edouard Julien. With the infield playing in, Byron Buxton grounded one right to Brett Baty, who threw down to the plate. His throw was slightly wide but handled by catcher Hayden Senger in enough time to make the tag.
Hagenman’s fourth strikeout got him out of the pickle, the game still knotted at zeros after three full innings.
Festa faced a two-on situation in the fourth, after Alonso stayed hot with a single. Festa won a nine-pitch battle against Luisangel Acuña, finally freezing him with a 96 mph sinker on the inside corner.
Tyrone Taylor and Brett Baty — both hitters struggling for the Mets — led off the fifth with back-to-back singles. Festa hit Francisco Lindor to load the bases with one out, bringing up $765 million superstar Juan Soto.
Baldelli pulled Festa after 76 pitches (51 strikes). He had a steady mix of four-seam fastballs, sliders and changeups, with six swings-and-misses on the slider.
“I think the slider has been doing well for me,” Festa said. “I didn’t throw the sinker as much as I would have liked to today [4%], just for some matchup reasons and stuff like that. But the slider, it was good to both righties and lefties. Putting in work with Pete [Maki] and the staff, on making it more consistent. I thought, overall, it was one of my better slider days.”
Lefty Danny Coulombe took all of one pitch to escape the jam. Soto grounded one to Julien, the second baseman, who was playing close enough to first base to run to the bag in time for an unassisted double play.
“I saw the ball, and when I looked to my left, Lindor was, like, on third base. He didn’t move,” Julien said. “I thought I was gonna tag him, and then he just tried to, I guess, avoid me.”
Baldelli added with a smirk: “You’re kind of laughing in the dugout afterwards. You put a big smile on your face; you’re like, ‘Nice, Ed. That’s pretty good, man.’”
The Mets’ failure to capitalize quickly caught up on them. Hagenman surrendered another hustle double to lead off the bottom of the fifth, this time by Castro. His afternoon came to its conclusion with Castro on third and one out.
Bader ended the scoreless tie against his old team. He hit a single through the left side, then later scored on an RBI single by Buxton against José Buttó. The Twins took a 2-0 lead after five innings.
Still, it was a successful debut for Hagenman. He was charged with just the one run in 3 1/3 innings, throwing 50 pitches and 32 strikes. He totaled four strikeouts and didn’t issue any free passes.
Castro, who hit one of Minnesota’s hustle doubles earlier in the game, beat out a soft ground ball to Alonso in the sixth. With two outs, it allowed Jeffers to come around and score against Buttó, making it a 3-0 game.
“You don’t have to be the fastest team in baseball to run the bases well and run the bases aggressively,” Baldelli said. “I couldn’t be happier with the way our guys overall have been running the bases.”
The Mets finally got something going of their own against reliever Griffin Jax in the top of the eighth. Alonso collected his sixth hit and third extra-base hit of the series, driving in Lindor with a double. Winker followed with another double to put the tying run in scoring position.
With two outs, Acuña — who had been 0-for-3 with three strikeouts — poked one into the 5-6 hole. Castro couldn’t field it cleanly, and Winker came home on the infield single to make it 3-3.
The three-run frame continued an uneven start to the season for Jax, who posted a 2.03 ERA in 72 games last year but is sitting at 7.04 through his first 7 2/3 innings this season.
Scoreless innings by New York’s Ryne Stanek, A.J. Minter and Edwin Díaz sent the game to extras.
Twins pitcher Cole Sands got a huge break in the top of the 10th, getting Winker to ground into a double play after he walked Alonso. That set up a walk-off situation in the bottom half with Buxton as the free runner.
France lined a single to center on the third pitch he saw against Reed Garrett, sending the Twins home walk-off winners and series winners all in one flash.
“I don’t think we could have drawn it up any better,” France said. “I was just trying to put the ball in play and let [Buxton] do his thing.”
Now, the Twins travel to Atlanta having won a series against a team other than the White Sox.
“It’s a clean slate,” Bader said. “And I think this team has done a good job of kind of turning that over and remaining confident, and just going out there that next day, regardless of the previous day, still playing effective baseball. So I think those two wins there against a fantastic team, top to bottom, means a lot for us moving forward.”
