MINNEAPOLIS -- The ball was really flying at Target Field on Thursday night -- and Ryan Jeffers took the opportunity to seize the day.

For the 26-year-old catcher, this has been a year of renewal, of long-awaited payoff after spending the offseason rebuilding his swing from scratch to finally become the offensive force he always believed he would be.

The series opener against the Rangers brought his signature moment. As soon as Jeffers swung, he knew it, too.

Jeffers watched his pinch-hit, go-ahead two-run homer soar into the second deck in left-center field before hurling his bat into a soaring parabola over his head in front of his teammates, bat mimicking the ball that sent the Twins to a 7-5 comeback win over the American League West-leading Rangers.

“It kind of just happens,” Jeffers said. “You get in that moment and you know you get it. The rest, you kind of just blank out and … what happens, happens.”

“That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” Matt Wallner said. “That was electric.”

“It was sexy,” Carlos Correa said.

Minnesota holds a six-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central, and this is what the games will feel like in October if the Twins close out the division title. They will need to go toe-to-toe with elite pitching staffs, and with lineups the caliber of the murderers’ row put forth by the Rangers, who clubbed three homers for an early 5-2 lead against ace Pablo López.

The Twins answered with five long balls -- two from Michael A. Taylor, one from Kyle Farmer, one from Royce Lewis, all before Jeffers’ game-winning blast -- outslugging the AL’s foremost lineup of sluggers.

“If you’re into good baseball games and some good play, and some good drama, this was a pretty good day,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

Jeffers’ transformation from below-average bat to catcher slashing .282/.380/.493 involved a lot of focused work and preparation in the offseason -- and that preparation continues every day.

Case in point: When Correa walked into the batting cage during the seventh inning to get loose and do his pre-at-bat routine, he saw Jeffers hitting off a pitching machine set very high -- and Correa was confused at that.

“I’m going to hit Will Smith’s slider, and he’s got the high release,” Jeffers told him.

Jeffers didn’t start the game, but because the Rangers like to go lefty-lefty out of their bullpen in the eighth and ninth -- Aroldis Chapman to Smith -- bench coach Jayce Tingler told Jeffers to get ready to pinch-hit.

Jeffers knew Chapman would attack with fastballs, but he’d never seen Smith before.

So, Jeffers cranked the machine up to mimic Smith’s release point, and hit slider after slider for two innings, getting ready for the pitch that Smith throws 48.8% of the time, more often than any of his other pitches.

“I was like, ‘Will Smith is going to throw him a slider, and he’s been practicing the slider for two innings already,’” Correa said.

It worked out perfectly for the Twins. Right-hander Josh Sborz entered to protect a 5-4 Texas lead in the bottom of the eighth and allowed a single to Wallner and a rocketed double to left-center from Correa in a continued turnaround of his season-long struggles, tying the game at 5.

“If I just focus on the numbers throughout the entire season, I’m always going to be depressed going into a ballpark,” Correa said. “For me, just go out there, figure it out. All this stuff I’ve been going through this year is going to pass.

“I’m going to go out there and feel more consistent, feel like the player you were again.”

Lewis walked before the Rangers brought Smith in to face Max Kepler, who grounded into a double play. That put Correa on third with two outs, and Edouard Julien, another lefty, due up to hit.

That was the spot Jeffers had been getting ready for. He’d seen so many sliders already from Smith’s exact release point, and he was ready to attack it on the first pitch.

“I told Joey [Gallo] right before I went out there, ‘Hey, if he hangs me one here, I'm putting it in the seats,’” Jeffers said.

Smith obliged, serving up a belt-high slider on the inner half.

Jeffers could not have been more ready. He prepared all offseason for this -- and he prepared all night for this.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s preparing for that at-bat,’” Correa said. “And then that at-bat came. And you know what happened.”