'He shows up': Correa adds Wild chapter to October legend

MINNEAPOLIS -- Carlos Correa was sitting on his couch at home with his wife, Daniella, last October. He wasn’t used to that; the quiet and solitude felt so distant from where he usually was that time of year -- in the midst of the biggest moments and the loudest crowds.

“I never want to miss the playoffs ever again,” Carlos said to Daniella.

He belongs in October, on this stage, one of the game’s greatest postseason performers of all time -- and he was everything that was promised and more throughout the Twins’ two-game sweep of the Blue Jays in the AL Wild Card Series that they completed with a 2-0 victory in Game 2 on Wednesday at Target Field.

“His calmness, his demeanor, there's not a moment that's too big,” Sonny Gray said. “Superstars show up in the biggest moments.”

It’s not just that Correa is coming through with his bat -- though he did that, of course, with the bases-loaded RBI single that gave the Twins the lead.

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It’s also the almost superhuman instincts on defense and extreme baseball IQ that caused arguably the biggest momentum swings of the series: the do-or-die, improvised throw home to cut down Bo Bichette at the plate on Tuesday and, a day later, the inning-ending pickoff of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at second base to quash Toronto’s most promising rally in the fifth inning.

October Correa notices the little things that pop up in the biggest moments.

Ryan Jeffers was the one who called the pickoff play on his PitchCom device with men on second and third and two out in the fifth inning, with the Twins clinging to a 2-0 lead. Sonny Gray was the one who made a perfectly executed spin and throw, leaving Bichette with the bat in his hands as Guerrero helplessly signaled for a futile replay review, the opportunity wasted.

But it was Correa who had the idea for such an audacious move.

It started in the first inning when Correa got back to the bench after the Blue Jays had runners on first and second. He got everyone’s attention.

“Hey, listen, listen, listen to me,” he told his teammates. “They can't hear the third-base coach yell, ‘back.’ There's going to be an option to pick. The timing pick is going to be there. It's going to be there.”

Four innings later, everything happened just as he said. The Twins’ sellout crowd of 38,518 was roaring on its feet. With a full count to Bichette, Correa gave the signal to Jeffers, who relayed it to Gray. Guerrero couldn’t hear a thing as Correa raced to the second-base bag behind him -- and it was over before he knew it.

“For him to have the awareness earlier in the game to say, ‘Hey, this is an option; this is there for us,’ and then in a moment like that to have the awareness to relay it ... for him to have that awareness is what makes him special,” Gray said.

Guerrero had no idea such a play could have happened -- much like Bichette was taken aback by the execution when Correa backed up a grounder that got through third baseman Jorge Polanco and made a full-sprint throw across his body toward home to nail Bichette at the plate to end the fourth inning of Game 1.

“No, obviously not,” Guerrero said when asked if he expected it. “Especially with a runner on third base. I wasn’t expecting that. Obviously, they did it.”

At that point, Correa had already come through with the fourth-inning single off Yusei Kikuchi to cash in on the rare offensive chance created by the controversial decision by Blue Jays manager John Schneider to pull José Berríos in the fourth inning. Minnesota followed with a single and a walk off Kikuchi to give Correa a chance with the bases loaded.

Correa would be the first to acknowledge he had a disappointing season at the plate with a .711 OPS that was the worst full-season mark of his career and, though he won’t use it as an excuse, it has to do with the plantar fasciitis that has pained his left foot since May and prevented him from properly planting into his swing.

This time, he roped a ground ball up the middle to put Minnesota on top.

“It's those key moments [where] I just try to visualize what I want to do,” Correa said. “Those spots find me in the playoffs and I feel like I'm ready mentally. So it was a great spot, a big spot in the game. I was glad I came through and we got the win.”

Of course, the Twins had heard of the legend of October Correa. Most had watched from afar as he built his expansive playoff legacy. This is their first time seeing it up close -- and they can’t help but marvel.

“He's kind of like Iron Man, I guess you can say,” Kyle Farmer said. “He puts that mask on, that playoff mask, and he comes out and he leaves it all out there. He's been there so many times. He knows what it takes to win.”

“When the stage gets big, he gets even bigger,” Pablo López said. “It's cool to see it in person. I used to see it on TV. No one sold him short on that. He does these things that you're not expecting to be done. He does it. He makes it look so easy. He shows up.”