MINNEAPOLIS — All afternoon, a sold-out Target Field crowd packed to the gills longed for its chance to erupt in ways hitherto unseen around these parts this deep into October.

They never got that opportunity. And now that the Twins’ backs are against the wall, they might only get one more shot at unleashing all that pent-up energy — they’ll need it, too.

• ALDS Game 4, presented by Booking.com: Today, 7 p.m. ET/6 CT on FS1

The Astros took that over-capacity crowd of 41,017 out of the picture rather quickly on Tuesday with a four-run first inning against Twins starter Sonny Gray, and the home team remained deflated throughout the afternoon as its offense fell flat in a 9-1 loss to the Astros in Game 3 of the American League Division Series. Minnesota now faces elimination for the first time this season.

“I think we can feel the energy, we feel the excitement in the stadium,” Ryan Jeffers said. “I hate that we weren’t able to give them something more to cheer about.”

“When you go into an elimination game, you’ve got to be ready to do whatever is possible to help the team win,” Carlos Correa said. “Everybody’s available. All the arms are available. And we’ve got to do a better job with people on base if we want to stay alive.

“We’re going to do that tomorrow.”

They have no choice.

“We’ve got to punch,” Lewis said. “They punched. We’ve got to punch back.”