MINNEAPOLIS -- In a tight game that could have gone either way many times, Sunday’s Twins-Cardinals battle came down to who blinked first. And it was the home team’s mistake in the ninth inning that made the difference.

The Cardinals took advantage of an error by Twins second baseman Edouard Julien in the ninth inning, as Lars Nootbaar’s two-out, two-run single helped St. Louis defeat the Twins, 3-2, to win the weekend series at Target Field.

“I love this one. We snatched it from them, to be quite honest,” Cards manager Oliver Marmol said. “They were doing a really nice job. They’ve got some tough arms. And you’re just grinding that whole game.”

Trailing 2-1 entering the ninth, the Cards were facing Twins closer Jhoan Duran (6-7). With one out, Nolan Arenado singled up the middle. Brendan Donovan then reached on a fielder’s choice, and José Fermín advanced to third base when Julien threw wildly to second trying to get Fermín.

Tommy Pham struck out for the second out, but Nootbaar chopped Duran’s first pitch through the hole at shortstop for a two-run single and a 3-2 lead.

Nootbaar pointed to what might have seemed like a throwaway at-bat against Duran in the ninth inning of the Twins’ 6-0 win on Saturday as a big reason he was able to come through on Sunday.

“It was nice being able to see him last night just to kind of know what I was going to have to go up against,” Nootbaar said. “I had a good feeling there he was going to try to start me off with a splitter just because he wanted to probably get me on the ground, make some weak contact on the ground like that.”

Duran wasn’t wrong -- against a traditionally positioned infield, Nootbaar’s swing probably would’ve resulted in a routine ground ball to shortstop. But the Twins had shortstop Kyle Farmer playing up the middle, leaving a gaping hole on the left side that Nootbaar exploited.

It was a game where the Cardinals needed almost every break to go their way for them to have a chance. But they also earned every one of the breaks they got with superior execution in the clutch.

In the bottom of the third, Julien led off with a single, and speedy Austin Martin followed with a grounder up the middle. However, the ball skipped off the mound and bounced directly to Donovan, who started a 4-6-3 double play.

In the fourth, the Twins loaded the bases with two outs via a hit batter and two walks. But Erick Fedde stepped up and blew a sinker past Manuel Margot for the inning-ending strikeout.

In the seventh, the Twins had runners on first and third with one out, but once again, the speedy Martin hit an Andrew Kittredge pitch on the ground, and the Cardinals turned another double play.

Finally, after the Twins took the lead on Royce Lewis’ pinch-hit RBI double in the eighth, Minnesota was trying to add on an insurance run as Lewis advanced to third with one out.

Instead, reliever Shawn Armstrong (3-2) got Farmer to pop out and retired Ryan Jeffers on a groundout to end the threat. That set up Nootbaar’s heroics in the ninth, leading to an exciting if not relaxing victory.

“You look at the way we’ve had to win games over the course of the season, they look a lot like -- that,” said Marmol, pointing to the field. “Where it’s one run, two runs, and our ‘pen at this point, they welcome the pressure that comes with having to keep a one-run ballgame. They’ve done it nonstop. It’s their norm now, and I mean that in a good way.”

In the home clubhouse, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli lamented the one that got away.

“Sometimes, just putting balls in play will lead to wins. It’s benefitted us at different points -- just put the ball in play with runners in scoring position, and you give yourself a pretty good shot,” Baldelli said. “Today, when they put the ball in play and hit ground balls and choppers, they found some space on the field. When we hit some ground balls and choppers with runners in scoring position, they were double plays. That’s part of the game that we play.”