SEATTLE — In the minutes after the game ended on Thursday, not long after he had been hit by a pitch on the right arm by Diamondbacks reliever Bryce Jarvis and walked off the field in pain, Carlos Correa was already talking about playing the next day.

It seemed improbable, at least from the outside looking in.

After he was hit, he immediately raised his right arm, holding it up with his left arm and walking straight to the dugout rather than taking his base. His hand, at that point, was numb and his reaction suggested he might have suffered some kind of fracture.

But the Twins avoided the worst, getting an X-ray done before the end of the game, which was negative for a fracture.

“We got lucky and it was a legitimately scary time for us but reasonably quickly, he knew that he was OK,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The player normally does know before anyone else if he’s really OK or if there’s a question mark about an injury like that.”

And to his word, Correa was in the Twins’ starting lineup on Friday, hitting second against the Seattle Mariners.

“It was a little scary situation, but I’m glad that I woke up feeling great and we’re back in the lineup,” Correa said. “That’s where I want to be.”

Feeling great? Really?

“It’s going to be sore,” he finally admitted. “But it’s fine. It’s fine.”

And that’s a good thing for the Twins, because their star shortstop has been a key piece in making the offense go, especially of late.

Correa’s June saw him win an American League Player of the Week honor and entering Friday’s game, he was hitting .309 with a .380 on-base percentage and .873 OPS.

His 148 OPS+ is a mark that is both 48 percent better than the league average hitter and well above his own career mark of 126.

“He’s been exceptional. He’s hammering balls on a regular basis,” Baldelli said. “When you see him going the way he’s going, the team goes well. We score runs. When he starts going, too, other guys start feeding off of some of it.”

Willi Castro makes all-star case

Last week, Correa was touting Willi Castro as the team’s Most Valuable Player.

This week, Baldelli was talking up the utilityman’s all-star credentials.

Castro, who has played in every Twins’ game this season, moves around the field adeptly and he’s having perhaps his most productive season offensively, entering Friday’s contest hitting .277 with an .820 OPS. His 2.9 fWAR (Wins Above Replacement per FanGraphs) leads the team.

“I think he’s firmly in that conversation,” Baldelli said. “I don’t know how much more clear it can be that he’s having an all-star season. He’s done a fantastic job.”

No Twins player advanced to the second round of All-Star Game fan voting, which is used to determine the starting position players. The reserves and pitchers will be selected by a combination of the Commissioner’s Office and player ballot, and will be revealed on July 7.

Nobody from the Commissioner’s Office consults Baldelli, he said, but he’s hoping to see multiple players rewarded for their efforts.

“We have several players having fantastic years and I think it would be, I would say, at this point, it would be a travesty to only have one guy on the all-star team,” Baldelli said.

Briefly

Pablo López will take the mound on Saturday opposed by Bryce Miller. López is coming off his most dominant start of the season, an eight-inning effort in which he gave up just two hits and struck out 14.

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