Twins lose Buxton to injury during loss to Rangers in series finale

MINNEAPOLIS -- Things went from bad to worse on Monday.

The Twins had another chance to get their bats back on track, facing a winless rookie pitcher with a 5.02 ERA. They did not, as they were again held nearly silent in a 2-1 loss, dropping three of four to a non-contending Texas team as they went 2-for-26 with runners in scoring position and only mustered six runs in the series, their lowest total in a four-game set since 2016.

• Twins turn their second triple play of the season

And somehow, that wasn’t even the toughest part, as center fielder Byron Buxton exited the game after the sixth inning with right hip tightness, with manager Rocco Baldelli unsure after the loss if Buxton would join the club during its upcoming three-game series in Houston.

“He had a few things go on today where you could tell he was really feeling it,” Baldelli said. “Over the last few days, he’s been in a spot where he’s been on the verge of not being able to go out there, not being able to swing or run. But he’s continued to post up and continued to go out there and play at ... not a high percentage of what he can normally do, physically.”

Buxton was not available for comment after Monday’s game as he was undergoing an MRI on the hip, which, notably, appears to be a distinct issue from the tendinitis in his right knee that has been said to have hampered him throughout the season.

Baldelli revealed after Monday’s game that the hip, too, has been bothering Buxton for “a good part” of the season, and that the list of maladies had already been enough to nearly sideline the center fielder for several days. Baldelli wasn’t able to identify any single incident on Monday, but Buxton appeared to be in pain after fouling off a pitch during his final at-bat in the fifth inning, and he got up gingerly after a diving attempt in center field in the sixth.

“Most of what he’s dealt with, we haven’t even talked about,” Baldelli said. “The guy is a warrior; the guy goes out there and plays through things that are not imaginable for many -- both other players and people watching and Byron Buxton fans. What he’s done to this point in the year has been pretty amazing with the physical difficulties that he’s had.”

The Twins won’t know if Buxton will require a stint on the injured list until they receive the results of his imaging and discuss with their medical staff. He has notably avoided the IL all together for the first time since 2016, with the Twins carefully treating him before games and monitoring his usage to ensure that he can be out there for them, more often than not.

But there have been many times this year where they’ve thought about just giving him 10 or 15 days off his feet to heal and regroup. Ultimately, at least in part due to his desire to stay on the field for his teammates, they haven’t made such a move. Depending on the results of this MRI, that first IL stint definitely appears to be on the table.

“He likes to grind through everything,” Baldelli said. “I mean, he’s wanted to play through broken bones. Things you can’t play baseball with. He just wants to be there for his team and his teammates. … We’ll see what this equates to once we put all the pieces together.”

Especially after a series like this, in which the Twins couldn’t execute their offensive plans and couldn’t come up with good reasons why, they might just need to hit their way out of this slump. Buxton’s a key to that, both on the field and, energy-wise, off the field. It won’t get any easier from here -- and they might be down one of their most dynamic hitters.

"There's no explanation needed [for the struggles],” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “It's just poor baseball play by us. It's as simple as that. We're a lot better than that. We didn't execute. We didn't do our job, and that's that. There's no explanation for how poorly we played.”

“I don’t know if we need to bring some instruments out there, if we need to start to hang some flags,” Baldelli said. “You almost need to distract yourself sometimes from what’s actually going on so you’re not just grinding on one particular point the entire time that you’re out there, and that point is putting a good swing on the ball with people on base.”