When Rocco Baldelli came to get the ball from Simeon Woods Richardson in the second inning, he had an important message for the rookie starting pitcher.

“’We got this,’” Woods Richardson recounted. “And we got it.”

On a day where the Twins fell into a three-run hole just three batters into the game and Woods Richardson allowed seven of the 10 batters he faced to reach base, his teammates came back and picked him up.

They climbed out of the early deficit, broke out of a homerless drought that had lasted more than a week, and finally, finally got some big hits when they needed them on their way to an 8-3 win over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night at Target Field.

It was desperately needed just to keep pace with the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals, who won their games earlier in the evening. The Twins (82-76) remain two games back in the AL wild-card race with four games left in the regular season. Even with the win, the Twins’ playoff odds decreased, but at the very least, the come-from-behind victory kept their slim hopes alive.

“There’s some tough-mindedness there,” Baldelli said. “And the guys stayed at it. It’s not easy when you are down and you’re down early.”

After Woods Richardson gave up Jake Burger’s three-run home run in the first inning and ran into trouble in the second, allowing a pair of hits, he was replaced by Louie Varland, who quickly dispatched the next three batters, each via strikeout, to keep the Marlins (58-100) right where they were.

“Louie coming in and doing what he does, being a bulldog, you could kind of feel that energy come back to the dugout and that’s kind of when we took off,” center fielder Byron Buxton said.

Varland’s effort was part of a 16-strikeout day from Twins pitchers, who, plunged into an unexpected bullpen game, came through all night to give the offense a chance to stay in it.

The Twins got a little help from the Marlins’ infield defense, too.

While the Marlins’ three outfielders each made a fantastic grab, Miami made four errors in the infield, including one in the Twins’ two-run second inning, after which Trevor Larnach brought home a pair of runners with a single to center.

The Twins knotted the game up in the fourth on Buxton’s 450-foot home run, which was the team’s first blast since Sept. 17, a stretch of more than 60 innings, and finally broke things open in the seventh, again getting some help from the Marlins to do it. With Brooks Lee on second base, Christian Vázquez laid down a two-strike bunt, which pitcher Declan Cronin threw away.

Was the bunt sign on with two strikes?

“No,” Baldelli said. “But sometimes things work out.”

Lee raced home to score on the play, giving the Twins their first lead of the night. Carlos Correa, who earlier made a key baserunning mistake and was doubled off second base, atoned for his error by driving in another run with a double before Carlos Santana delivered a bases-clearing double to right field to send the Twins on their way to a pivotal victory.

“It’s just one of those where (we) took the punch and fought back,” Buxton said.