MINNEAPOLIS – Look out. Byron Buxton is on a roll.
A day after hitting his first home run of the season, one that gave him the career record at Target Field, Buxton followed with two more as part of a huge day. He hit solo shots in the third and sixth innings as the Twins jumped on another established starter, this time Boston’s Sonny Gray.
They were two of the key hits in the Twins’ fourth straight win, a 6-0 triumph over the Red Sox. Minnesota has won eight out of nine since a 3-6 start.
The slugger, coming off a season in which he hit a career-high 35 homers, got off to a bit of a slow start this year. But he’s been coming on lately, with Tuesday marking his third multi-hit performance in the past six days. Buxton noted that he missed a good number of at-bats during Spring Training when he was a member of Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, but played sparingly. Now that his number of at-bats is building, so is his effectiveness.
“For the most part, my swing feels good,” he said. “Still a few things to figure out here and there, but for the most part it’s coming. Obviously, three weeks and eight at-bats, that’ll set you back a little bit. And mentally, I think I tried to rush my swing back within the first couple of weeks. It was like ‘I know you ain’t got it, but we’re still going to go out here and get a hit.’ But it’s not that easy. It’s baseball.”
Buxton also singled twice and scored four runs, including an impressive score from second on a shallow single by Luke Keaschall.
Mick Abel was brilliant for the Twins, who have won six in a row at Target Field. Abel pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out 10 without a walk.