Correa's postseason magic continues with run-saving throw

MINNEAPOLIS -- It takes a little bit of magic to exorcize 19 years’ worth of postseason demons.

Luckily for the Twins, they employ the man who is all but synonymous with playoff magic. How else can one describe Carlos Correa’s heads-up, athletic defensive gem that saved a run for the Twins in the top of the fourth inning of Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series?

It was the sort of broken play and mayhem that has customarily gone against the Twins amid their 18-game playoff losing streak -- but this time, they had that magic on their side, sprinkled into defensive highlights throughout the game, to maintain their narrow 3-1 victory over the Blue Jays on Tuesday at Target Field.

“I've said it many times before in the playoffs, and I'll say it again: Defense wins championships,” Correa said.

Indeed -- and Correa led by example with that have-to-see-it-to-believe-it miraculous effort.

“That play should be shown everywhere, over and over again,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “If you like watching the biggest players making the biggest plays in the biggest games, then you should go watch that play. It was fantastic.”

With runners on first and second and two outs against Twins ace Pablo López, Kevin Kiermaier nudged a weak grounder down the third-base line, where fill-in third baseman Jorge Polanco -- playing out of position -- charged the ball but couldn’t make a barehanded play.

But as the ball trickled into no-man’s-land behind Polanco and Bo Bichette made a wide turn around third in an attempt to score, Correa sprinted over from behind the second-base bag -- where he’d been shifted against the left-handed Kiermaier.

“Once I saw Bo look at the ball, I knew he had intentions,” Correa said. “I could see in his eyes, he had intentions of being aggressive. I just went after him.”

In one fluid motion, he made a barehanded pickup while at a dead sprint and made an off-balance, 73.2 mph throw home while falling toward the third-base line -- and it soared directly into the waiting mitt of catcher Ryan Jeffers, who applied the tag to Bichette for the third out of the inning, keeping the Blue Jays off the board.

“I thought it was worth the chance,” Bichette said. “I thought he would have to make a great play to get me out, and he did.”

“Carlos came out of nowhere,” Jeffers said.

Royce Lewis became the third player in AL/NL history -- after Evan Longoria (Game 1, 2008 AL Division Series) and Gary Gaetti (Game 1, 1987 AL Championship Series) -- to homer in his first two postseason plate appearances. Michael A. Taylor and Max Kepler added highlight-reel plays in the outfield. Put them together, and everything was falling the Twins’ way in the early innings as they scrapped for their first playoff win since 2004.

Taylor had an outside shot at a 20-20 season while playing Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field all season in place of the limited Byron Buxton, and finding that level of performer was important to the Twins in building out their depth last offseason.

It paid off on Tuesday. Twice.

The first was an all-out dive in shallow center to nab a sinking line drive off the bat of Alejandro Kirk in the second inning. The second came at a hugely consequential point in the game, upon López’s exit in the sixth inning with the Twins up, 3-1, and runners on first and second with two outs.

With rookie and St. Paul native Louie Varland summoned from the bullpen for the biggest spot of his life, Matt Chapman crushed the ball an estimated 401 feet to right-center, carrying an expected batting average of .620.

Not if Taylor had anything to say about it. He ran 93 feet back to the wall, leaped at the warning track -- and saw the ball settle into his glove for the crucial out.

“It wasn't any good thoughts initially,” Varland said with a laugh. “Then I saw Michael slow down and get a good read on it and eventually catch it. It was a big relief, I'll tell you that.”

“We hit some balls hard,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Chappy hits the ball farther than Lewis, and it's caught. It happens.”

After all that, it was only fitting that the game ended on another standout defensive effort when reserve first baseman Donovan Solano dove to his right on a sharp grounder and flipped the ball to closer Jhoan Duran to finish off the historic win.

“Balls are going to get put in play,” Correa said. “When you convert those into outs, then it gives you a better chance of winning ballgames. We showed that today. If we would have not made half of those plays, the outcome of the game would have been a lot different.”