Home plate umpire Adam Hamari, a native of Marquette, signals for a pitch clock violation on the Minnesota Twins' Max Kepler during the sixth inning of Game 2 of an AL wild-card playoff series between the Twins and Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday in Minneapolis. (AP photo)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Carlos Correa endured the worst hitting season of his career after signing the richest contract in Minnesota Twins history, playing through a painful bout of plantar fasciitis in his left foot.

The defense, intelligence and leadership were always there, though. Postseason prowess was part of the package, too.

Correa had an RBI single and a quick-twitch tag on a pivotal pickoff throw from Sonny Gray, and the Twins swept the Toronto Blue Jays with a 2-0 win in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series on Wednesday.

“Everything is October. The mentality is different. I’m just giving everything out there, everything I have,” Correa said. “I’m going to keep doing that for the rest of the time that I’m here in Minnesota.”

The Twins advanced — for the first time in 21 years — to play the defending World Series champion Astros. Game 1 of the best-of-five AL Division Series is in Houston on Saturday.

That’s familiar territory for Correa, who spent seven seasons with the Astros. He signed with Minnesota in 2022 and re-upped for $200 million this year after agreed-to deals with the Giants and Mets fell apart over concern about an old ankle injury.

“Superstars show up in the biggest moments,” Gray said. “Just the way he sees the game, the way he can slow it down, is a special player.”

Correa helped Houston reach three World Series, winning it all in 2017, and he’s one round into another memorable October.

“They’ve got a great team, and so do we,” Correa said. “Everywhere you look, we’re ready.”

The two-time All-Star, who went 3 for 7 with a hit-by-pitch against the Blue Jays, ripped a bases-loaded single in a two-run fourth. The patient Twins delivered precisely when they needed to at the plate, and their bullpen tossed 7 1/3 scoreless innings in the series.

Jhoan Duran, after a delay to tend to a cut on his thumb following his warmup, struck out the side in the ninth to trigger a celebration around the mound.

The Blue Jays, who lost their seventh straight game in the playoffs since the AL Championship Series in 2016, left nine runners on base in each game. Matt Chapman had a line drive hook just foul before grounding into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the sixth against Caleb Thielbar.

“One run in two games, one extra-base hit isn’t going to cut it,” Toronto manager John Schneider said.

Minnesota, after stopping a record 18-game postseason skid with the 3-1 win in Game 1, ended a nine-round losing streak that started with an ALCS defeat in 2002. The Atlanta Braves (2001-2019) and Chicago Cubs (1910-1998) share the all-time mark with 10 straight series lost.

The Blue Jays made Gray work for his first career win in the playoffs, but the veteran right-hander finished five effective innings. He had three inning-ending strikeouts, before the slick move to finish the fifth when he was in the most trouble.

Gray threw a wild pitch that put runners on second and third. But with a full count on Bo Bichette, Gray whipped around and threw to the shortstop Correa, who grabbed the ball and grazed Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s chest with his glove a split-second before Guerrero’s hand hit the base.

Correa noticed the Blue Jays were taking big leads and having trouble hearing with the crowd noise, so he told Gray he’d signal when to try a pickoff.

“I told him there were some free outs on the bases,” Correa said. “It felt like the right situation to do it.”

The sellout crowd of 38,518 was even more into the action than Game 1, standing in anticipation of every inning-ending out for the Twins and thriving off the bulldog energy that Gray brought to the mound. He finished third in the major leagues in ERA (2.79) during the regular season and logged 184 innings, his most since 2015.

Gray, who is eligible for free agency after the World Series, grew emotional in his pregame news conference on Tuesday when talking about the motivation that he gets from his two boys. His son, Declan, even issued an ultimatum to his dad before the series: “You better not lose.”

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BOLD MOVE

Blue Jays starter Jose Berríos threw three scoreless innings against his former team, but Schneider followed through on his promise that the entire pitching staff, excluding Game 1 starter Kevin Gausman, was available to try to extend the series.

Schneider pulled the right-hander Berríos after a leadoff walk by Game 1 star Royce Lewis in the fourth inning. Left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, one of four Blue Jays who made 31 or more starts this season, was greeted by a single by Max Kepler. Pinch-hitter Donovan Solano walked, Correa put the Twins up with his single, and pinch-hitter Willi Castro’s double-play groundout got another run on the board.

“He had electric stuff,” Schneider said of Berríos. “Tough to take him out. But I think with the way they’re constructed, you want to utilize your whole roster. It didn’t work out.”

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CAREFUL LEWIS

Lewis, whose recovering hamstring strain has limited him to designated-hitter duty, hit a slow roller up the third base line in his first at-bat that prompted a sprint out of the box. The ball rolled foul, making his hustle moot. Then when he hit a grounder straight to shortstop for an inning-ending double play, he cautiously jogged at about half-speed to first.

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LONG LIST

Minnesota’s postseason series losing streak started with the Angels in 2002 and included the Yankees six times, in the divisional rounds in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2019 and in a single wild-card game in 2017. The Twins also lost a division series to the A’s in 2006 and a wild-card series to the Astros in 2020. Their division tiebreaker win over the Tigers in 2009 was considered part of the regular season.

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Rangers beat Rays 7-1 for Wild Card Series sweep behind Garcia and Carter home runs

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Two years after losing 102 games, the resilient Texas Rangers are savoring a journey that’s transformed them into a playoff team.

“It’s all about bouncing back, dealing with the tough times. You know you’re going to have them,” manager Bruce Bochy said Wednesday after the Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 to finish a two-game AL Wild Card Series sweep.

“What’s important is how you handle it, and thse guys have handled it so well,” Bochy added. “I think we were counted out earlier in the season or late August … but what a job they did to bounce back and to be in this position.”

The Rangers rode a rollercoaster of emotions while losing three of four games at Seattle and letting the AL West division title slip away on the final day of the regular season. Instead of returning home with a first-round playoff bye, Texas was rewarded with a cross-country flight to Florida.

“We had to fly to fly right over Dallas, so that could have been really a downer for the club,” said Bochy, a first-year manager with Texas after winning three titles with San Francisco. “They reset, refocused, and just put together two of the best games back to back that we probably have had all year when you look at the pitching, the offense, the defense — everything we knew we had to do to beat a club like Tampa.”

The next stop is Baltimore, where the Rangers begin a Division Series against the AL East champion Orioles on Saturday.

Adolis Garcia and Evan Carter, a 20-year-old rookie who became the second-youngest postseason player in franchise history, homered off Zach Eflin, a 16-game winner unable to save Tampa Bay’s season.

Nathan Eovaldi gave Texas an outstanding pitching performance. The Rays’ scoreless streak reached 33 innings, one shy of the postseason record held by the 1966-74 Los Angeles Dodgers, before Curtis Mead’s RBI single in the seventh.

Texas won a postseason series for the first time since 2011, when the Rangers reached the World Series before losing to St. Louis.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay followed a stellar start with a fizzling finish.

The Rays opened 13-0 to match the 1982 Atlanta Braves and 1987 Milwaukee Brewers, trailing only the 20-0 start by the 1884 St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association. They led the AL East from opening day and then were overtaken by the Orioles in mid-July.

After gaining the AL’s top wild card, Tampa Bay extended its postseason losing streak to seven straight. In getting swept in consecutive Wild Card Series, the Rays scored two runs over four games while hitting .161.

Injuries were a factor in the fade to second in the AL East. The Rays also had to play down the stretch without All-Star shortstop Wander Franco, on administrative leave while Major League Baseball and authorities in the Dominican Republic investigate an alleged relationship between Franco and a minor.

Cash didn’t offer any excuses for being swept again.

“Look, that’s the easy narrative,” Cash said. “We are who we are, and we finished the regular season with the guys that we had. I still feel that we could have had a better showing with the roster that we had.”

Eovaldi, beating the Rays for the third time this year, allowed six hits while striking out eight and walking none over 6 2/3 innings.

Garcia’s leadoff homer began a four-run fourth inning against Eflin. Josh Jung had a RBI triple and Carter hit a two-run homer to right for the Rangers, 7-0 in postseason games at Tropicana Field.

Carter batted .306 with five homers and 12 RBIs over 23 games after making his major league debut on Sept. 8. He reached base in his first six postseason at-bats, doubling twice and drawing three walks.

Tampa Bay finally got an out from the No. 9 hole when Colin Poche fanned Carter in the sixth inning. Marcus Semien and Corey Seager followed with run-scoring doubles.

“Carter, gosh, this young kid has come up — I don’t even know if he knows that he’s in the big leagues,” Bochy said. “This guy has such a calmness about him.”

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EMPTY SEATS

Attendance for Game 2 was 20,198, another below-sellout crowd at Tropicana Field but up slightly from Tuesday’s 19,704. That was the lowest figure for a major league postseason game since the 1919 World Series, other than 2020 games played during the coronavirus pandemic.

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SWITCHING IT UP

The Rays removed CF Jose Siri and inserting Josh Lowe into the cleanup spot. Manuel Margot shifted from right field to center, while Lowe played right .

Siri returned for Game 1 after being sidelined since Sept. 12 with a fractured right hand. He and went 0 for 3 and committed a throwing error that allowed a run.

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GOOD OMEN?

The Rangers also beat the Rays in the 2010 ALDS and 2011 ALDS, clinching both series at Tropicana Field. Texas went on to appear in the World Series each of those years.

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