The last series of the season started slow Tuesday at CHS Field for the Saints against the Indianapolis Indians, but they pulled off a 4-2 win.

Both teams were scoreless through the first four innings. Indianapolis scored two in the fifth, which St. Paul answered with a Payton Eeles home run, his seventh of the season.

It was just the second home run Indianapolis starting pitcher Bubba Chandler had allowed in his 39 Triple-A innings. The No. 21 prospect in baseball pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowed seven hits and two runs, both earned, walking two and striking out eight.

Caleb Boushley started for the Saints, pitching five innings, allowing six hits and two runs, both of them earned, walking four and striking out three.

The Saints added one run in the sixth, seventh and eighth, but Indianapolis didn’t answer.

Kody Funderburk recorded the win, and closer Steven Okert had the save.

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Down by one with 8.5 seconds left, Bridget Carleton inbounded the ball to Napheesa Collier, who took a couple of dribbles, stopped with two defenders near her and kicked the ball back out to Carleton.

From 34 feet away, her 3-pointer found nothing but net with 3.4 ticks left, and the Minnesota Lynx beat Connecticut 78-76 Tuesday night in Uncasville, Conn., and locked up the second seed for the WNBA playoffs that begin Sunday.

“There’s so much joy and so exciting. It was a really deep shot, so it was really fun. It was stressful,” said Collier, who led Minnesota with 25 points.

And it was the final basket in a game that featured eight lead changes in the final 2:25 and four in the final 22.9 seconds.

“It’s kind of the epitome of the season for her like she just kind of deserves something like that to happen to her. Really special,” said coach Cheryl Reeve.

A candidate for the league’s most improved player, Carleton has transitioned from a bench player to starting all but four games. Wont to pass up good shots in prior seasons, she has gone from scoring 3.2 points in 15.1 minutes per game in 2023 to 9.7 points in almost 30 minutes per game this season.

Carleton, who finished with 13 points, is knocking down 44.7% of her 3-point shots, making 13 of 20 in her past four games, including three of four Tuesday. She was not made available for the postgame Zoom.

“BC works so hard for us, she does everything we ask every single night. She’s also one of the best people you’ll ever meet,” Collier said. “She just said it was her first game winner, which is really exciting. Such a great teammate, person, ball player. So to have her win the game for us in such a way like this, it’s an amazing feeling we all have for her.”

Minnesota (30-9) has won seven straight and 13 of 14 since the Olympic break. And it was the second on the road over a top-three team in three days after winning 88-79 on Sunday at New York (32-7).

Finishing in the top two guarantees home-court advantage for the first two rounds of playoff action. The Lynx are 16-3 at Target Center this season.

And finishing second means facing Phoenix — 3-7 in its last 10 entering Tuesday — in the best-of-three first round. The Lynx are 3-1 against the Mercury this season.

“Staying connected has been a testament to why we are where we are right now, problem solving together, never anybody pointing fingers,” said Kayla McBride. “That becomes a lot of fun, because then you’re just competing your (rears) off for 40 minutes and hopefully you end up on top. That’s what we’re doing, and we’re having a lot of fun doing it.”

The Lynx finish the regular season at home Thursday against seven-win Los Angeles.

“It’s safe to say we’re certainly not going to run these guys into the ground,” Reeve said of the starters.

The Lynx led by 12 late in the third quarter, and a 3-point play by Alanna Smith gave Minnesota a 69-62 lead with 4:01 left. But Connecticut scored 12 of the next 16 points and led 74-73 with 22.9 seconds to play.

Collier hit a fadeaway with 12.8 seconds left to put the Lynx back up by one, but a cutting layup by DeWanna Bonner four seconds later gave the Sun (27-12) a one-point lead. Then came a Minnesota time out that led to a fantastic finish.

McBride scored 14 points and had seven rebounds. Courtney Williams had eight points and dished out a season-high 12 assists.

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CLEVELAND — In a quiet clubhouse, after a loss on Monday that was difficult to digest, reliever Griffin Jax stood in front of reporters after he had given up a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning and called it “heartbreaking.”

Jax had come in an inning earlier to clean up a bases-loaded jam and had done so, successfully. An inning later, the Twins’ lead was gone.

Tuesday, the Twins’ top reliever had another chance, and boy did he respond, coming in with a pair of runners on base and successfully navigating around that to seal up a 4-1 win for the Twins over the Guardians at Progressive Field.

The Twins were seemingly trying to stay away from Jax, going to Ronny Henriquez for the seventh inning — perhaps the most high-leverage inning of his career — before turning for Jhoan Duran for what they seemed to hope would be a two-inning save.

But Duran, after a clean eighth inning, allowed a leadoff double in the ninth and then, after a strikeout, walked a batter, spelling the end of his night. The Guardians ended up loading the bases on a softly-hit ball to shortstop Brooks Lee that he bobbled. But with the go-ahead run at the plate, Jax got the groundout he needed, fielding the final out and taking it to first base himself.

At this point of the Twins’ season, with such a slim margin for error, it seems as if every game is a must-win. And while runs haven’t come easy in recent weeks, the Twins did enough on Tuesday to pull away from Cleveland.

Matt Wallner, who came into the game 0 for 17 in recent days, snapped out of that skid with a two-out RBI hit in the third inning to give the Twins a lead. After the Guardians tied it up with a Lane Thomas home run off of starter Zebby Matthews, Wallner came through with yet another two-out hit in the fifth inning to give the Twins the lead back for good.

All four of the Twins’ runs on Tuesday scored with two outs as Willi Castro, who had not collected an extra-base hit since August, picked the perfect time to hit his first of the month. a two-run homerun that gave the Twins an important cushion.

Shortstop Brooks Lee #72 of the Minnesota Twins turns a double play over Bo Naylor #23 of the Cleveland Guardians at second base in the fifth inning at Progressive Field on Sept. 17, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Closer Griffin Jax #22 and Willi Castro #50 of the Minnesota Twins celebrate a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on Sept. 17, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)