SEATTLE -- It’s as easy as A, B, C -- Arraez, Buxton, Correa.

That’s a veritable minefield for any opposing starter to have to navigate, right off the bat -- and like those who came before him, Mariners starter Chris Flexen couldn’t quite get it done. The Twins have now stacked Luis Arraez, Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa atop their lineup, in that order, three times, and each time they’ve emerged with first-inning runs.

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On Monday, those runs came courtesy of a two-run blast by Buxton, the reigning American League Player of the Week, and that early surge powered the Twins to a 3-2 victory over the Mariners in the series opener at T-Mobile Park.

“Taking that excitement out of the crowd right away, for us, that’s when we know things are starting to click and things are going good,” Buxton said. “For us, that’s kind of like our motivation.”

It took a while for manager Rocco Baldelli to swap Arraez and Buxton atop the lineup after Buxton had hit leadoff for the season’s opening months, and it took longer still for Arraez (right shoulder tightness), Buxton (right knee soreness) and Correa (COVID-19) to all get healthy and productive at the same time. Monday marked just their third time in the A-B-C formation -- and their first time lined up that way on the road.

Arraez is the early leader in the race for the AL batting title, and his 2-for-4 performance with a walk on Monday boosted his average to .362 and marked his AL-leading 16th game reaching base three or more times in 2022. Buxton’s 18th homer of the season marked his seventh blast in his last nine games and pushed him to second in the Majors behind Aaron Judge (24). Correa is, well, Correa, and he’s hitting .384/.445/.586 since April 28.

On Thursday, the trio’s first game in that sequence, they opened with back-to-back-to-back blasts off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, marking the seventh time in AL/NL history (since at least 1900) in which a team’s first three batters of a game all homered. On Friday, the Twins scored in the first on a Buxton homer off Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen (and Correa singled behind him).

On Monday, Flexen had his work cut out for him, seeing as Buxton entered the game 5-for-5 lifetime against the right-hander, with three doubles, a homer and a walk. He kept that going.

Arraez knocked the first pitch of the game into center field for his first hit. Buxton followed by working a full count, waiting for a hittable fastball, and crushing it an estimated 401 feet to right-center field, only his second long ball of '22 that landed to the right of straightaway center field.

“Just trying to stay a little bit more middle through the field,” Buxton said. “[Flexen] has a great cutter and used it quite a bit tonight on both sides of the plate, so didn’t want to yank those foul and miss that offspeed pitch. It’s trying to stay through the middle of the field a little bit more.”

Even before Chris Archer threw his first pitch of the game, Team A-B-C had staked him to a 2-0 lead. The Twins already led the AL with 49 first-inning runs entering Monday’s game -- and with seemingly no reason to change this lineup configuration that’s been working so well, they should see plenty more opportunities for first-inning ambushes.

“First inning is a unique spot, because pitchers are sometimes getting settled in and they’re not totally comfortable and some maybe aren’t doing some things that they do later in the game,” Baldelli said.

The pitching staff did its part, too, with Archer allowing only an unearned run in four strong innings, while six relievers out of the bullpen yielded two hits and a run in five innings behind him. Max Kepler, the No. 4 hitter behind the A-B-C boys, joined the party with a left-on-left RBI single off reliever Ryan Borucki in the seventh that proved to be a crucial insurance run when Mariners center fielder Taylor Trammell homered in the bottom of the frame.

But it all got started on the right note in that big first inning -- and opposing pitchers had better watch out.

"I'm never trying to give up a run, so I'm trying to prevent runs, whether it's 0-0 or 10-0,” Archer said. “But you do exhale a little bit, and it's nice to have that cushion, yeah."