Janet Jackson took the stage Tuesday night at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center wearing a comically oversized jacket that, coupled with the lengthy braids she kept sweeping away from her face, kept her largely hidden from the enthusiastic crowd of about 10,000.

It turned out to be an apt metaphor for her enthusiastic, if underwhelming, performance that echoed the 58-year-old’s three most recent local shows in the time since she returned to large-scale touring in 2015.

Her live band, tucked away in the shadows at the back of the stage, often overpowered Jackson, who also leaned heavily into the prerecorded backing vocals. And, once again, she crammed as many songs into her 110 minute show as she could, even if that meant cutting down some of her most-loved songs to a mere verse and chorus.

Jackson did switch up the set list from her previous show at the X, which happened just 13 months ago. Split into four “acts” and a finale, with downtime between each to facilitate Jackson’s costume changes, the show bumped her biggest hits up against relatively obscure album cuts, many drawn from her post-Super Bowl halftime show years when the music industry pretty much abandoned her.

(I, for one, was hoping — hoping, but not expecting — to hear Jackson throw some shade in Justin Timberlake’s direction following his early morning arrest Tuesday on DWI charges in the Hamptons. Alas, she chose grace, something Timberlake most certainly did not in the years since he tossed her under the bus after her infamous “wardrobe malfunction.”)

Jackson opened the first act with “Night,” from her most recent album, 2015’s “Unbreakable.” From there, she dived deep into her catalog for a series of upbeat, sometimes indecipherable, songs delivered as a lengthy medley. It wasn’t until her a cappella intro to “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” that the crowd got their first clear taste of Jackson’s breathy vocals.

Flanked by her muscular dancers, who wore dress shirts with the arms ripped off and plaid skirts, Jackson revisited a trio of her earliest hits during the second act: “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” “Nasty” and “The Pleasure Principle.”

The concert was nearly half over when Jackson shifted into slow jam mode, kicking off a run of songs with 2006’s ode to, uh, self-pleasure “Take Care” followed, funnily enough, by her 1987 ode to chastity “Let’s Wait Awhile.” She let the audience sing the bulk of “Again” and then broke into tears and announced “I love you so much,” a popular refrain from Jackson the few times she did speak to the crowd.

Well into her second hour, Jackson unleashed her full voice for “Alright,” “Escapade” and “Miss You Much” and did the same near the end during “Scream” (accompanied by her late brother Michael’s recorded vocals) and a particularly fiery and noisy “Rhythm Nation.” It would have been great to hear more of that throughout the show.

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Nothing can stop the Twins at this moment. Not even a long stoppage in the middle of the game.

Though the Twins started off slow on Tuesday night at Target Field, they awakened after a lengthy rain delay, then completed the comeback with a 7-6 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Carlos Santana played hero, pinch-hitting for Jose Miranda in the ninth inning and promptly hitting a single to center field to score Manny Margot from second base.

The dramatic finish helped the Twins extend their winning streak to six games as they continue to chase the Cleveland Guardians for supremacy in the AL Central.

It wasn’t the cleanest of outings for Pablo Lopez before the rain delay, which spanned 1 hour, 23 minutes. He surrendered a three-run homer in the first inning, another run in the third and a solo homer in the fifth before the skies opened up. He was lifted from the game in favor of Jay Jackson when play resumed.

Given the way Lopez has carried the Twins at times over the past couple of seasons, it’s only right that his teammates picked him up on a rare occasion that he wasn’t at the peak of his powers.

The Twins responded thanks to some timely hitting by Willi Castro. He stepped into the batter’s box in the fourth inning with the bases loaded and tripled to right, scoring Carlos Correa, Ryan Jeffers and Austin Martin. That cut the deficit to 4-3, and Trevor Larnach doubled to left field shortly thereafter to score Castro and tie the score at 4-4.

That score wouldn’t hold, as the Rays got a solo home run from Brandon Lowe right before the rain delay and a solo home run from designated hitter Josh Lowe right after the rain delay.

Fortunately for the Twins, Max Kepler followed suit the next time he was at the plate, making it 6-5 with a solo home run of his own. Not long after that, Correa drew a walk and eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Jeffers to tie the score at 6-6.

Aside from Jackson out of the bullpen, the Twins also got solid efforts from Jorge Alcala, Griffin Jax, and Jhoan Duran in relief.

That set the stage for Santana. He watched a couple of pitches whizz by him, then casually barreled up a ball to lift the Twins to a win.

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