Minnesota Twins’ Harrison Bader keeps safety in mind when he and Carlos Correa get on a collision course

Harrison Bader has made an impact on the Twins by diving to catch fly balls seemingly once a week this season. But he missed one during Friday night’s game — and doesn’t much mind that he did.

When Royals left fielder Michael Massey hit a high pop-up to shallow center field in the fourth inning, shortstop Carlos Correa drifted out, tracking the ball as it traveled. But Bader, hustling in from center field, immediately and loudly began calling for the ball, until Correa turned and cleared the area.

Bader dived for the ball, and it hit his glove but bounced out as he hit the ground, a single for Massey. But he succeeded in keeping Correa, in his first game back from a concussion suffered in an outfield collision, from putting himself in that danger again so soon.

“I just made a decision when the game started that anything kind of floating in the middle there, I was going to go hard and get [Correa] out of there. Call it early and take it myself. But that one just hung up there and spun backward a little bit,” Bader said. “I should have caught it, but I’m OK with the decision because it was a calculated one. It was an intentional one. It was the call I thought would give us the best chance to catch the ball there. It didn’t work out, but the process was good.”

His manager agreed.

“Bader called that ball reasonably early, probably trying to help Carlos. Bader is a pretty aware guy, so he’s probably factoring in more than just catching the ball,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He was probably trying to take the onus off Carlos to have to go back and catch it. It was probably even closer to Carlos than Bader. But I don’t think, as time goes on, that this is going to be any sort of thing we’ll have to worry about.”

After talking to Correa, who didn’t start Saturday’s game but drew a walk as a ninth-inning pinch hitter and scored the winning run, Bader said he’s convinced now that sort of consideration won’t be necessary again.

“His condition was why I made that decision to come in hard, but I know he’s OK,” Bader said. “Moving forward, I’ll judge the [flight of] the ball and not overextend myself. Because I know he’s good now.”

In two games with the St. Paul Saints, Matt Wallner collected five hits, or more than he accumulated in his first eight games with the Twins this season. And he wasn’t really even trying.

“Just trying to feel somewhat decent at the plate is the goal,” Wallner said of his first two games on a rehab assignment. “To be able to get results, too, that’s great.”

But going 5-for-9 doesn’t mean he is ready to face big-league pitching again, Wallner cautioned. His strained left hamstring has healed, but it has been nearly six weeks since he was in the Twins lineup.

How soon until he returns? “I really don’t know,” Wallner said. “I know I play [Sunday] and probably a couple of games next week. Then, kind of see what happens.”

What’s happened so far, though, is plenty encouraging, the 27-year-old Forest Lake native said.

“Honestly, I feel really good,” he said. “A little bit more tired after the game than I would normally be, but that’s totally expected. Other than that, I feel good.”

A little more than a month after they each suffered strokes, Tony Oliva and Kent Hrbek returned to Target Field on Saturday.

Both Twins Hall of Famers were introduced as part of a pregame ceremony in which the team donated $2,500 to the Minnesota Stroke Association. Three other stroke survivors and their families were also honored on the field.

Oliva, 86, visited the Twins clubhouse before the game as well. He told Baldelli that during an examination Wednesday, his doctor was alarmed when Oliva’s blood pressure suddenly spiked. There was a reason, Oliva said: “Cleveland tied the game in the ninth inning!”

• The Twins will mark the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder Sunday with a pregame ceremony to promote the Minnesota Black Collective, a foundation formed in the aftermath of the 2020 riots that followed Floyd’s death. The foundation “played a key role in helping to rebuild the Lake Street area, getting vital resources to the business and people who needed them most,” the team wrote in a statement.

• The Saints split a doubleheader with Norfolk at CHS Field, losing the first game 12-1 and rallying to win the second 6-4. Mickey Gasper homered twice in the second game.