MINNEAPOLIS — The Mets battled a playoff-bound team to a scoreless duel for eight innings Sunday at Target Field. It took nine innings, but DJ Stewart finally broke through in the ninth to put the Mets on the board.

Getting to the bullpen was key for the Mets (65-77). Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez shut them out over eight innings and was replaced by righty Griffin Jax in the ninth. Francisco Lindor led off the top of the inning with a double and Jeff McNeil walked to put two on. Pete Alonso struck out to bring up DJ Stewart, who battled Jax (6-9) for nine pitches. With the count full, he put a solid swing on a sweeper and sent it into the right-center gap to score Lindor and McNeil.

Stewart’s production has yet to drop off, even with an oblique injury that sidelined him for the first three games of the trip. He’s driven in 21 runs over his last 17 games and homered one night prior.

Ottavino put two on before getting out of trouble and converting his ninth save of the season.

Tylor Megill had his first scoreless outing since April, blanking the Twins over five innings. Four walks prevented the right-hander from going past five innings, but he allowed only two hits and struck out two.

Since being called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Aug. 5, Megill has shown improvements but hasn’t yet been able to break his pattern of inconsistency from start to start. Still, in one of his final starts of the season, the Mets saw plenty of reasons for optimism.

Lopez was even tougher to crack than Megill. He limited the Mets to two hits struck out 14 to give the Twins (75-68) a chance. Lopez hit two batters, including catcher Francisco Alvarez. The rookie was hit on his left wrist in the fifth inning but remained in the game. However, he was replaced in the bottom of the seventh by Omar Narvaez.

Nothing appeared amiss when he came out of the dugout, but after a brief delay, Narvaez appeared and started the inning behind the plate with Trevor Gott on the mound.

Brooks Raley earned the win (1-2) with a scoreless eighth.