KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Byron Buxton said he would be OK after getting hit by a pitch on his left knee and exiting early in the Twins’ 5-1 victory against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Buxton, who led off the game with his 30th home run, went down to the ground for a few moments after right-hander Michael Lorenzen hit him with a 92 mph sinker in the fifth inning. Buxton stayed in the game to run the bases, and he returned to center field for the bottom of the fifth and the sixth. By the seventh, the pain was telling him to cut it short.
But he sounded optimistic that he’d be ready to play Monday at Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels.
“It got me good enough to come out,” Buxton said. “I tried to fight a little bit through it, but just trying to be smart and make sure I’m ready for tomorrow.”
Happy to have the Twins break a six-game losing streak, Buxton also was excited to realize that his long ball made him the franchise’s second player to reach at least 30 homers and 20 steals in the same season since Kirby Puckett in 1986. Buxton needs nine stolen bases for 30 and has 19 games to get there.
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” Buxton said. “Obviously Kirby was a big icon here, so to be in a club like that with him is… I’ll think on that. It’s special.”
Buxton’s homer also tied him with Tom Brunansky for 10th all-time on the Twins career homer list with 163. Brian Dozier is ninth at 167.
Kody Clemens later added a two-run homer that went an estimated 451 feet to center. “An absolute bomb,” manager Rocco Baldelli said, “that gave us some separation.”
Ober achiever
Right-hander Bailey Ober made his best start in a month, and picked up a win for the first time since May 3 by allowing a run, four hits and a walk to go with six strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Ober said the individual win meant little to him, but pitching well enough for the Twins to win was huge.
Ober (4-8) did the work mostly by bypassing his fastball, which was still registering below his season average velocity and his velo from 2024. Ober came in with a 5.23 ERA.
“I wouldn’t say it was intentional,” Ober said. “It was just kind of seeing what they were on and what they weren’t. I felt like I was able to mix and locate my off-speed, whether that was changeups or the hard slider or the sweeper. So I felt like I had that rolling, and they weren’t adjusting as early as I thought they might be.”
Jeffers put on concussion IL
Catcher Ryan Jeffers just didn’t progress fast enough for the Twins to avoid putting him on the concussion IL. He took two foul tips off his headgear Thursday against the White Sox in Chicago, and missed the Royals series entirely, though the Twins played with a short roster the first two games in Kansas City while they evaluated Jeffers reactions.
The move was retroactive two days to Friday. Jeffers traveled Sunday morning back to the Twin Cities. Carson McCusker and Pierson Ohl were added from Triple-A St. Paul, and right-hander Brooks Kriske was designated for assignment or release.
Twins trainer Nick Paparesta said Jeffers appeared to be improving early Saturday, but some symptoms — like feeling groggy — didn’t disappear late in the day.
“His symptoms [at first] were basically like fogginess, just kind of out of it,” Paparesta said. “He felt difficulty processing and just struggling to be his normal self. The first day we got to Kansas City, those symptoms remained. He did look better Saturday… but as the day went along, those symptoms never went away. They were still there and present.”
Paparesta said it was his understanding that Jeffers never had a concussion as a major leaguer before.
Topa startled by knee pain
Trying to close out the game, right-hander Justin Topa made a pitch in the ninth inning and felt a pain in his knee similar to the patellar tendon injury that ruined most of his 2024 season. He left the game and a save opportunity to Génesis Cabrera, who closed out the Royals with Mike Yastrzemski as the tying run at the plate.
After getting with the medical staff, Topa doubts the knee injury is too serious.
“I kinda had just like a zinger,” Topa said. “Felt it in the patella tendon. Literally the first time I felt anything there all year. So that’s why I was a little taken aback.”
Topa missed most of the 2024 season in part because of a knee injury he sustained in Spring Training. This is not that, even if it frightened him for a bit.
“Obviously, with the history last year and everything that was going on, we just said to take a look at it,” said Topa, who picked up a hold with his scoreless inning-plus, lowering his ERA to 3.90.
“Doctor said that structurally, everything looks good,” Topa said. “He just kind of pressed around almost trying to make it feel that way again and it didn’t, which is good.”
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