Yoán Moncada pulled a double into the right-field corner during the second inning of an April 2 game against the Houston Astros last season at Minute Maid Park.

The Chicago White Sox third baseman doubled again — this time pulling a grounder that just stayed fair down the first-base line — in the sixth inning. Batting left-handed again, the switch-hitter capped the day by going the other way with a two-run home run to left field in the ninth.

Moncada had a strong start to the season, going 8-for-18 (.444) with two homers and four RBIs in the series against the Astros as he built off his All-Tournament Team performance for Cuba during the World Baseball Classic. Then came the back issues that led to two trips to the injured list.

“During the first half of that season, it was painful, stressful,” Moncada said through an interpreter Thursday at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago in Bridgeport. “I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to do stuff and help the team but I couldn’t. It was a really tough time for me.”

He was out from April 11-May 12 with lower back soreness and again June 14-July 25 with lower back inflammation.

Moncada rebounded after returning from the second IL stint, slashing .280/.323/.430 with two home runs and 12 RBIs in August and .298/.344/.560 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in September.

“Once I started getting better and stronger, I felt much better and I felt good,” Moncada said. “That was why I was able to finish the way that I did and that’s how I feel right now.”

The 28-year-old is aiming to use that late-season bounce back as a springboard for 2024.

“He feels great, the back feels great, he’s motivated,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s going to get to spring training early on the 31st of January or first of February, which is a great sign and he’s going to put himself in a position to have a great year. We need Moncada.

“He’s motivated to having a full season under his belt, which is good for him.”

Moncada slashed .260/.305/.425 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in 2023. After appearing in 144 games in 2021, Moncada played 104 games in 2022 and 92 in 2023.

His offseason work has included strengthening his abs, back and legs to “get all that core really strong,” he said.

“The way I’m preparing myself for this coming season is to play 202 games,” Moncada said, when asked about attempting to play as close to 162 games as possible. “That’s an exaggeration, but that’s how I’m preparing myself.

“I want to be healthy. I want to be on the field every day.”

Moncada said he is motivated and excited because he’s healthy.

“That’s the only thing I want — if I’m healthy, I know I can do a lot of good things in the field,” Moncada said. “I’m excited right now to get to spring training and start working.

“I think God has saved something good for me. Hopefully we are going to see that. Hopefully I’ll be able to be healthy and really show and really display all I can do on the field.”

Moncada’s best season was in 2019, when he established career highs in several categories, including OPS (.915), doubles (34), home runs (25) and RBIs (79). He signed a five-year, $70 million extension in March 2020 — a deal in which the Sox hold an option for $25 million in 2025 with a $5 million buyout.

The solid defensive third baseman knows he’ll be fielding questions from reporters about the future.

“I would love to stay with the White Sox if they want me here,” Moncada said. “I’m very thankful for the White Sox for the opportunity they have given me after I was traded from the Red Sox (in December 2016). They’ve been treating me very well. I like the organization, I like the city, I like the fans. I would like to stay here.”

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Warmer than average temperatures on Tuesday gave way to frigid cold Wednesday as the Twin Cities saw a 48-degree swing, according to the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.

Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport recorded a high of 53 on Tuesday, followed by a low of 5 degrees Wednesday. The Twin Cities also received a dusting of snow Tuesday evening.

NWS Metereologist Brennan Dettmann said it would certainly be “within the top ten” of day-to-day temperature records, though he didn’t have historical data immediately available. Much of the rest of the state also experienced swings of temperatures around 40 to 50 degrees or so, he noted.

What’s causing it?

“Things are starting to warm up as the sun angle changes, you get … warmer weather at higher latitudes,” Dettmann said. “You start to get big temperature differences between air masses in Canada and near the equator … you get those really quick shifts in temperatures. We’re right in the middle line of where those air masses fluctuate.”

Don’t expect the cold to stick around, though. Dettmann said temperatures are forecast to start climbing back into the 40s and 50s, and even 60s by this weekend — which is roughly 20 degrees warmer for this time of the year.

Dettmann said this is his first winter in the Twin Cities.

“It certainly stands out for how warm it’s been and it’s been one of the least  snowiest winters ever,” he said. “This is unofficially in contention for the warmest winter (on record).”

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After a disappointing, 3-2 loss to Carolina on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, the Wild find themselves six points out of a Western Conference playoff spot with 23 regular-season games remaining.

So, the Wild aren’t dead yet, and in fact have been playing well, 7-2-1 since returning to the all-star break to rise two places in the conference standings. But, boy, their margin for error is thin.

Which makes Thursday night’s game against the Predators in Nashville the kind of game that can make or break this belated run at making the playoffs for the third straight season, fourth if you include the 2020 COVID season.

Right?

“No,” head coach John Hynes said after Tuesday’s game.

“I think this time of year, you’ve gotta be a little leery of getting into, ‘This is the biggest game of the year,’ ” the coach added. “It’s an emotional time of the year. Every game matters, but it’s not like we’re at Game 72 or 73 right now.”

What else is he going to say? Any coach in any sport will tell you, with a straight face, that anything other than an elimination game is not a must-win game, and Thursday’s game against the surging Predators isn’t close to being an elimination game, nor is Saturday’s game at St. Louis.

But let’s be real; they’re close enough.

“They’re not just any other games,” general manager Bill Guerin said Wednesday. “These are huge. These are the two teams ahead of us, and we’ve got a chance to close the gap. These are huge games for us.”

Nashville has won six straight for the current claim on the second conference wild card playoff spot in the West, and virtually tied with Los Angeles for the first, six points ahead of Minnesota. Thursday represents a four-point sway for both teams. A Minnesota loss puts the Wild eight back with 22 games left.

That’s farther out than the Wild were after losing consecutive home games to Nashville and Anaheim on Jan. 25 and Jan. 27. These are the wages of the Wild’s 5-10-4 start, which concluded with a seven-game losing streak and head coach Dean Evason losing his job.

Losing at home to Carolina, a good team the Wild were nevertheless outplaying for most of the first two periods, stung. Yeah, it wasn’t a conference game, but it was two points they had in their grasp and let drop.

“Hynesy just said something very valuable, that we can’t get too low on losses here and we can’t get too high on wins,” defenseman Declan Chisholm said after the game. “It’s an emotional time, for sure. We’ve gotta play the long game and just stick with it.”

But the long game is becoming shorter, especially with the March 8 trade deadline looming. How close do the Wild need to be for Guerin not to cut bait on the season and try to get something for impending free agents such as Nick Bogosian, Brandon Duhaime or, if possible, Pat Maroon?

Guerin already has added a body, 2020 second-round draft pick Marat Khusnutdinov, who will join the Wild as soon as his work visa is secured. Whether anyone might be leaving is unclear.

“I just gotta play it by ear,” Guerin said. “I haven’t made any decisions on anybody yet. I’ve had plenty of discussions about a lot of different scenarios, but I don’t know yet.”

Since Hynes became coach on Nov. 28, the Wild are 23-14-2, a significant improvement, no doubt. But the team also has spit the bit on a few crucial games this season, most notably those two losses before the all-star break. Beating Nashville, a team the Wild beat 6-1 in their previous meeting, would have pulled Minnesota within two points of eighth place.

Instead, they played a fairly uninspired game and lost, 3-2, then inexplicably lost to a terrible Anaheim team two days later. The Wild have played well enough to stay in it, and have beaten some good teams, but not well enough to get over the hump.

In that sense, a win Thursday at Bridgestone Arena would be something of a first this season, and a loss would be another kick in the shins.

It’s true, Thursday’s game in Nashville won’t literally make or break the season, but it will go a long way toward pushing it in either direction.

It’s the biggest game of the year.

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