MINNEAPOLIS -- By the way Royce Lewis was screaming in uncontrolled jubilation, hopping around the on-deck circle, screaming for all to hear that Matt Wallner had called his shot, there’d be no way to tell that a matter of hours earlier, the Twins had gotten a double dose of potentially season-altering bad injury news on Joe Ryan and Brock Stewart.

Sweeping a doubleheader on the most important day of the season to this point will do that.

Target Field erupted as Wallner’s called three-run shot -- “He said, ‘Imma get him,’” Lewis yelled -- exploded off the bat and carried onto the right-field plaza to give the Twins the lead in the fifth inning. The crowd erupted even louder when reliever Tim Herrin balked home an insurance run in the seventh, leading to Guardians skipper Stephen Vogt’s first career ejection.

Such were the scenes of jubilation in Minneapolis as the Twins perhaps began to swing the momentum of the AL Central race with a 6-3 victory over Cleveland on Friday night to secure a sweep of a critical doubleheader, pulling Minnesota within 1 1/2 games of the division lead. The Twins defeated the Guardians in the first game of the twin bill, 4-2.

“With all of the stuff going on, we have some stuff to figure out, but coming off a day like this, we got a lot out of our guys,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I hope everyone is impressed, because it started out as not the best day, and it ended as a great day.”

At the close of business exactly a week ago, the Twins were 6 1/2 games back of the Guardians -- but by extending Cleveland’s losing streak to seven games, the Twins have made up five games in seven days, with two more head-to-head matchups to go this weekend.

“We just out-baseballed them today,” Lewis said.

When Wallner strode to the plate with two on, two outs and the Twins just having relinquished the lead in the fifth inning, Guardians starter Alex Cobb fell behind -- and when Wallner got a center-cut 3-0 fastball, one of the Majors’ most productive hitters over the last month swung with all his might, watched the ball fly and hurled his bat aside to wrest the lead right back.

And yes, Wallner mentioned it to Lewis on his way to the plate.

“I don't know what I meant by that, but I just felt good about the at-bat,” Wallner said. “Royce's energy is contagious. Sometimes you say dumb things around him and you believe it because it's Royce. Sometimes it just comes out to be true.”

Speaking of energy, the Twins got it from an unexpected source on the basepaths with Christian Vázquez, who scored all the way from first base on an infield hit and throwing error in the second inning -- a frame after Willi Castro stole home for the game’s chaotic first run -- and danced off third base to get Herrin to flinch for the balk.

“We have a job to do,” Vázquez said. “We need to stay together, the guys we have here, compete together.”

The Twins still need to figure out how the back end of their rotation will fare as it’s entrusted to some combination of three inexperienced youngsters down the stretch due to the Ryan injury, and Louie Varland did little to answer those questions by allowing three runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings in perhaps his first audition for a more consistent role.

They’ll still need to figure out how the bullpen depth fits together in Stewart’s absence, and figure out how to dig deeper than they figured they’d need, even in the wake of their inactivity at the Trade Deadline.

But the Twins showed on Friday that they still very well might have enough punch to pull this thing off.

“I think we have the talent to go and win,” Carlos Correa said. “I think everybody knows that if we step it up a notch, we can be really, really, really good.”

Not only did Bailey Ober deliver six dominant innings in the first game, but the Twins also got 13 perfect outs from their bullpen depth -- Cole Sands, Caleb Thielbar and Trevor Richards -- to close out the pivotal Game 2.

That’s the kind of effort a Twins roster digging really deep will need to close the gap and prevail into the playoffs -- just don’t mention that word to the Twins yet.

“We’ve got to get there,” Baldelli said. “We have tons of work to still do. Today got us closer in heading in that direction.”