MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins have been struggling to score this month, with Joe Mauer and Kennys Vargas at the top of the slump list.

Well, guess who hit the home runs to tie and win the game in the last two innings?

Vargas hit a solo shot with two outs in the bottom of the ninth Thursday, lifting the Twins to a 2-1 victory and a two-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

“It’s always fun to get out there and jump around,” said Mauer, who went deep in the eighth to answer Jason Heyward’s solo shot for the Cardinals in the seventh.

Arriving at home on the first game-ending hit of his career at any level, Vargas was showered with water and a bucket of bubble gum in celebration. He grounded into two double plays, ruining a bases-loaded rally on one of those with one out in the seventh inning, and he’s only 5 for 27 since being recalled from Triple-A Rochester.

Before the game, Twins manager Paul Molitor pulled Vargas aside by the batting cage and encouraged him to refocus on having fun.

“You hope it takes some of the weight off that he’s been carrying,” Molitor said.

It sailed into the right-field seats on a slow 1-1 curveball from Carlos Villanueva (3-2).

“It’s, for me, something special that I’m going to remember all my life,” Vargas said.

Villanueva said he tried to throw the pitch on the outside of the plate so Vargas would chase it.

“The ball came back over the middle,” Villanueva said.

St. Louis lost for the first time in 35 games this year when leading after seven innings.

“It was just challenge time at that point, and their guy came out on top,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.

Minnesota won for the first time in 25 games this season when trailing after seven innings. For Mauer, this was his third home run of the season, all of which have tied the game or given the Twins the lead. The three-time batting champion’s once-sparkling average had fallen to .250 before he took Kevin Siegrist deep.

“I try to make `em count when I do hit `em,” Mauer said.

The six-time All-Star said his swing hasn’t “felt that bad” the last couple of weeks. Hitting one into the left-field seats was one way to beat those shifts.

“Nobody can catch a ball out there,” Mauer said.

Blaine Boyer (2-2) pitched the ninth for the victory, after eight dominant innings by Mike Pelfrey in an old-fashioned duel with Jaime Garcia.

St. Louis still has baseball’s best record by a comfortable margin, but the lineup has slumped lately with only 11 runs in the last five games. The Cardinals were shut out in three of Garcia’s first five starts since returning from surgery last summer to alleviate numbness and tingling in his left arm and hand.

Garcia pitched into the seventh, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out four and lowering his ERA to 1.76. Seth Maness bailed him out in the seventh after a walk and a single to start the inning, getting Vargas to ground weakly to shortstop for the double play.

PELFREY’S REBOUND

Pelfrey bounced back authoritatively from his worst start of the season, when he allowed 11 hits and eight runs over 3 2/3 innings at Texas. He gave up four hits and one walk while striking out three, the home run by Heyward the only blemish.

“For it to be 0-0 before that, it made it a little bit frustrating, but overall I thought it was a lot better,” Pelfrey said.

Pelfrey got Heyward to ground into a double play earlier on the same count and pitch as the home run, matching teammate Kyle Gibson for the major league lead in groundball double plays induced with 16. Pelfrey lowered his ERA to 2.97.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: RHP Lance Lynn (strained forearm) has been playing catch, but Matheny hasn’t reached the point of seeking daily updates, a sign that Lynn still has a ways to go. “He’s just progressing nicely,” Matheny said.

Twins: RHP Ervin Santana, serving an 80-game suspension for a positive test for a performance-enhancing substance, will make three rehabilitation starts for Triple-A Rochester beginning on Saturday. “If all goes well, we’ll have a decision to make,” general manager Terry Ryan said.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: The Cardinals continue their road trip in Philadelphia on Friday, with Tyler Lyons starting opposite Cole Hamels of the Phillies.

Twins: The Twins host the Chicago Cubs on Friday, with Phil Hughes taking the mound against Kyle Hendricks.

— Associated Press —

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tommy Milone gave up one run in seven innings and the Minnesota Twins squeaked out a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night.

Milone (3-1) gave up five hits and struck out five and Eduardo Nunez had two hits and two RBI to help the reeling Twins, who had lost seven of their previous eight games.

Carlos Martinez (7-3) gave up two runs — one earned — on five hits and struck out six in 6 2/3 innings for the Cardinals, who are embroiled in a federal investigation into allegations that members of the team’s baseball operations hacked into the Houston Astros’ personnel database.

The Cardinals had two runners on with no outs in the ninth, but Glen Perkins struck out Mark Reynolds and Randal Grichuk and got Yadier Molina to ground out to improve to 23 for 23 in save tries.

The Cardinals have spent the last two days swimming in deep water after news broke that the FBI was conducting an investigation into the hacking allegations involving a database compiled by former Cardinals executive Jeff Luhnow, now the Astros’ GM.

Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt and GM John Mozeliak responded forcefully on Wednesday, saying that they had no knowledge of any such actions and were conducting an internal review of their own to get to determine if there was any truth to the allegations.

Until then, Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny vowed not to let the headline-grabbing allegations, which have called into question the integrity of one of baseball’s model franchises, distract the team from the torrid pace it has set to start this season. The Cardinals entered the game with the best record in the big leagues, having beaten the Twins at home on Tuesday on the day the investigation was revealed by the New York Times.

They jumped on Milone in the second inning, getting an RBI single from Jason Heyward for a 1-0 lead.

But Mark Reynolds was charged with an error for being unable to scoop a low pickoff attempt from Martinez at first base, which allowed Trevor Plouffe to score from third and put Eddie Rosario in position to score on a sacrifice fly from Eduardo Nunez to give the Twins a 2-1 lead in the fourth.

A combination of the Cardinals’ enthusiastic fan base and the home debut of highly touted Twins prospect Byron Buxton led to an announced crowd of 34,381, the third-largest of the season at Target Field.

Buxton went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts, but did make a nice running catch at the warning track in the third inning.

Struggling star Joe Mauer was moved from third in the order to second. He had a double in the first inning, but struck out twice, including with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Twins: GM Terry Ryan said RHP Ricky Nolasco, on the disabled list with an ankle injury, was being fitted for orthotics. The club was hopeful that the orthotics would help relieve what has been a recurring for issue for him.

UP NEXT

The Twins send RHP Mike Pelfrey (5-3, 3.18) to the mound to finish the four-game split series against LHP Jaime Garcia (2-3, 2.06). Pelfrey had been a pleasant surprise for the Twins through 11 starts, but was tagged for eight runs on 11 hits in a loss to the Rangers his last time out. Garcia missed the first 40 games while recovering from thoracic outlet surgery. He has not walked a batter in his last four starts.

— Associated Press —