Byron Buxton is back in the lineup Saturday against the Yankees. That’s the good news for Minnesota. The bad news is they spent Friday night showing exactly what happens without him in the middle of everything.
Buxton will start in center field and bat second after missing four games with a right hip impingement. The Twins managed just one hit in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position during Friday’s 5-2 loss in the Bronx. That’s a team that entered the game leading the majors with a .288 average in those situations and averaging 4.88 runs per game, sixth-best in baseball. Without Buxton, the whole thing just looked different.
This isn’t the first time hip trouble has slowed him down this season. He missed five games in mid-May with a similar issue that bothered him mostly when he ran. This time around, the Twins sent him for an MRI after Buxton told them his swing didn’t feel right during the Colorado series last weekend. They kept evaluating him day to day, but they clearly had the bigger picture in mind.
His numbers are borderline ridiculous right now
Buxton wrapped up June with a .287/.330/.596 slash line, eight homers, 16 RBIs and three steals in 100 plate appearances. For the season, the two-time All-Star is hitting .268 with a .325 on-base percentage, a .573 slugging percentage, a .898 OPS and 25 home runs in 73 games. If he keeps this up, a third All-Star selection is practically a formality.
The timing matters here. Minnesota has now lost eight of its last nine games at Yankee Stadium. Since the current stadium opened in 2009, the Twins are 14-48 here including postseason games. That’s not a typo. That’s 14 wins in 62 games, which is brutal no matter how you frame it.
Still, the Twins are only 4.5 games back in the AL Central. The division is wide open and Buxton returning to this kind of form gives them a real shot at closing that gap. One guy shouldn’t change everything about a lineup. But sometimes he does.
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