We need to rank the Twins’ hitting heroes from the ninth inning of their 7-5 win over Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Yes, of course, Carlos Correa will take the headlines, as well he should - partially because Twins fans are just hoping that the Correa they’ve seen over the past few games is the Correa they’ll get for the rest of the season. For the second time in three games, Correa won a game with his bat, blasting a walk-off homer off of unhittable Brewers closer Devin Williams to give the Twins the series opener against Milwaukee.

I estimate the exit velocity to have been approximately 300 mph; it was one of those homers that fans barely had times to get sound out of their lungs, before it was banging off the facade of the second deck in left field.

But there were so many more heroes! In a Twins batting order! We need to properly appreciate the rest.

First, let’s set up the context here. For the last few innings before the ninth, the Twins broadcasters on both TV and radio had been reminding viewers and listeners that if the game got to the ninth inning with the Twins trailing, the game was pretty much over, because Milwaukee had Williams.

He came into the game with an 0.42 ERA, having allowed one run all season - a meaningless homer in a 7-3 win against San Francisco. Hitters had a better chance of standing still and hoping to walk to first than they did of getting a hit; he’d allowed ten walks in 21.2 innings, but batters were hitting .110 against him.

I’m not sure it worried the Brewers dugout that the Twins had Michael A. Taylor, Edouard Julien, and Donovan Solano due to hit.

For additional context, the Twins had just managed to load the bases in the bottom of the eighth inning, with a single and a walk and a hit-by-pitch that was called after replay, but Joey Gallo took two monstrous whiffs and then watched the next four pitches, including the last one, which was right down the middle.

So not only did Milwaukee have their impossible-to-hit closer on the mound, but Gallo had just demonstrated the entire panoply of Twins hitting failings - failure in the clutch, failure with the bases loaded, striking out, swinging and missing, et cetera.

Which is why hero #1 on my list is Taylor, who stepped up and cracked the second pitch he saw over the fence in straightaway center.

It’s June 14th and somehow Taylor has ten home runs already; only Gallo has more, for Minnesota. Plus Taylor has played really good defense in center, and has stolen eleven bases without getting caught. Going by bWAR, he’s just behind Willi Castro as the most valuable player the Twins have had this season.

Which brings us to hero #2, which is Castro. After Julien worked a walk, the Twins pinch-ran Castro, down 5-4, in the hopes he could do exactly what he ended up doing - steal second, then score on a hit.

It was a little wilder than that, though - not only was the stolen base perfectly dramatic, including Castro almost over-sliding second and having to reach back to avoid the tag, but then when Solano - hero #3 - cracked a single to short center, Castro wheeled around third, ignored the stop sign he got from Tommy Watkins, and charged home to tie the game.

The throw was up the first-base line; an on-target throw would have gotten him. And imagine what this post would be like if Castro had run through a stop sign and made an out at the plate in that situation.

A word for Solano, who also drove in a run with a single in the third inning. “Donnie Barrels” struck out twice and went 2-for-5, but he came up with runners in scoring position three times in the game, and knocked in two runs. Solano has a 1.050 OPS with runners in scoring position this year.

So, save a thought for Taylor and Castro and Solano, who got Correa to the plate - but it’s Correa’s walk-off homer, somehow the first one of his career in the regular season, that we’ll remember.

When a team wins 18-7 and sets a franchise record for hits in a game, as the St. Paul Saints did in their first game of six in Louisville, there are bound to be a lot of guys whose lines in the box score jump out.

That said, the top one is definitely first baseman Chris Williams, who smashed three homers and drove in seven runs. Williams is one of those Triple-A guys who come without much pedigree; he’s 26, was an 8th-round pick in 2018, and doesn’t seem to appear much on top Minnesota prospect lists. He did post a .915 OPS in Double-A last year, in 75 games, but hit just .192 in St. Paul in 42 games there.

Hitting three homers in a game is a good way to get noticed, though, and he does have a .940 OPS this season.

Gilberto Celestino also homered and had three hits, in his second game with the Saints since returning from the disabled list. (Matt Wallner only had two hits, the bum.)

But hey, the Twins can hit again, so who even cares which prospects are stuck at St. Paul? [/sound of every Twins blogger crying out in pain]

Wednesday’s a day for afternoon baseball, as the Twins play at 12:10pm and the Saints at 11:05am. Tonight, there’s plenty of local soccer on tap, as the Minnesota Aurora take on the hated Green Bay Glory, and Minneapolis City SC hosts less-hated FC Manitoba.