Carlos Correa shines in the field, at plate in support of Joe Ryan as Twins win again

TAMPA, Fla. — The lead trimmed to a lone run late Tuesday night, Carlos Correa ripped a hanging slider into the corner and raced out of the box with a double in mind. Speedy Tampa Bay Rays left fielder Chandler Simpson quickly retrieved the ball on the warning track and fired it to his cutoff man, but the relay throw to second base was late.

Correa slid into the bag safely ahead of the throw before pointing joyfully to second-base umpire Derek Thomas and calling for time. Two batters later, Correa scored a critical insurance run on a two-out RBI single by Ty France.

The hustle-double was the third hit of the contest for Correa, who is only beginning to heat up at the plate. Similar to the outstanding defensive plays he’s made in both games of this series, it’s a reminder of the many ways in which the Twins’ highest-paid player impacts the game like few others on the roster can.

Correa went 3-for-4 and cut down a base runner at the plate. Kody Clemens homered again, and Joe Ryan produced another gem as the Twins downed the Rays 4-2 in front of 10,046 at Steinbrenner Field. Ryan struck out five in six innings of one-run ball and the Twins won for the 17th time in 21 games, improving to 30-24 overall.

“When your superstars are playing really good, it kind of pulls the whole team along,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Carlos is one of those guys. When he comes up, it doesn’t matter what he’s hitting, if he’s struggling or not. You’re always going to tune in and be, like, he’s going to do something good. He’s starting to find his groove. I don’t think any of us really worried about him.”

The timing of Correa’s five-game absence for a concussion sustained in Baltimore on May 15 was unfortunate. Not only were the Twins in the middle of a 13-game winning streak, but Correa seemingly found a groove at the plate after struggling into late April. In the 15 games before he collided with Byron Buxton, Correa batted .328 over 62 plate appearances.

But even a one-week layoff to clear the concussion list hasn’t slowed him down.

Correa ripped the second pitch he saw in his return Friday night for a solo homer and picked up where he left off. He finished with two hits in Friday’s win, drew a leadoff, pinch hit walk, and scored the winning run on Saturday and homered in Monday’s loss, a contest in which he also provided an intelligent defensive play, throwing behind an aggressive base runner to pick him off third base.

With three more hits Tuesday, Correa is hitting .338/.357/.488 with three homers, 11 RBIs and 12 runs in his last 22 games played. He’s also tied for 14th among qualified defenders with five Outs Above Average.

“It’s not surprising when I see him getting hot like this and hitting balls on the barrel like this and finding himself,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He always plays with very good confidence and awareness. He carries himself very well on the field. … When he really starts to get going at the plate like this, I think you get even a little extra something from him and the way he walks around, the way he plays the game. The confidence factor is high, and it should be.”

With Correa’s confidence soaring once again, the Twins are flourishing and winning games they couldn’t close out a month ago.

The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning Tuesday when third-base coach Tommy Watkins aggressively sent Trevor Larnach home on Brooks Lee’s fly ball to medium left field, a close tag-up in which they took advantage of Simpson’s weak arm and a great slide by Larnach.

An inning later, Correa wiped out the potential tying run at home when he cut off Jeffers’ throw to second base on an attempted double steal and returned fire with a perfect throw back to nab Jonathan Aranda for the final out.

Kody keeps crushin’ 💪 pic.twitter.com/0ROevzyupN

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 27, 2025

Clemens, who increased the lead to 2-0 in the second with a booming homer to center, made a slick diving catch in right with a runner on second in the fourth inning. Third baseman Jonah Bride also made a nice catch on a hot shot headed for the corner in the sixth.

Then Correa and France provided insurance in the eighth.

Facing reliever Manuel Rodríguez with one out, Correa worked ahead 2-1 in the count and pounced on a slider. His drive sliced to the corner in left, giving Correa enough time to leg out a double. He advanced to third on Lee’s grounder to first and scored a pivotal run when France bounced one through the right side for a two-out RBI single and a two-run lead.

“The first 22 games we learned what not to do,” Correa said. “Now we’re just trying to do what we’re supposed to do.

“The pitching staff has been lights out, the defense has been really solid and the hitting will come around. We hopefully get Buxton and (Matt) Wallner soon at some point, and it’s a big boost to our lineup. We can keep grinding those at-bats, keep getting those swings and keep getting better.”

Ryan mixes effectively to lead again

Tuesday was the sixth time this season Ryan’s yielded one or fewer runs in a start. He did so despite throwing his four-seamer a season-low 38 times to counter a good fastball-hitting club.

Mixing in his splitter, sweeper, sinker and slider effectively, Ryan worked through a bunch of early traffic before eventually settling in to shut down Tampa Bay’s lineup. Ryan induced an inning-ending double play in the first with a man on third, escaped a second-inning jam with Correa’s help, and limited the damage in the fourth to a run after surrendering a leadoff double and a one-out RBI single.

When Ryan retired Kameron Misner on a fly ball to strand two runners in the fourth, it began a stretch of seven in a row he’d set down to end his outing. Ryan limited Tampa Bay to a run and five hits with a walk and struck out five. He also overcame another balk, this one courtesy of a PitchCom snafu in the first inning.

“It just shows adaptability,” Baldelli said. “That’s what the really good pitchers can do, just flip a switch. Instead of attacking with a four-seamer, he’s going with his sweeper, he’s going with his split, he’s mixing in the sinkers. He’s pitching differently because he can. It was a very impressive outing.”

Ryan’s been highly impressive after returning from last year’s season-ending Grade 2 teres major muscle strain. He improved to 5-2 with a 2.57 ERA, 72 strikeouts and only nine walks in 63 innings.

“It’s a good four-seam for a reason, so that’s kind of where I’m going to stay with,” Ryan said. “That and the sinker is pretty sweet, too. So being able to mix that in there, got the sweeper in later. I think Jeffers did a really good job with the circumstances and where it was at and everything, just calling a really good game, staying locked in, communicating between innings. He did outstanding, so that helps a lot. And then the defense, we’re seeing the good plays. It makes it a lot easier to mix stuff in there and get some quick outs when we needed it.”

(Top photo of Carlos Correa hitting a double in the eighth inning: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)

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