Again?! Mullins robs Buxton for second week in a row -- this time of HR

MINNEAPOLIS -- Cedric Mullins has left Byron Buxton bewildered, again.

Mullins went up and reached over the center-field wall at Target Field on Friday as the O's outfielder robbed his Twins counterpart of a potential three-run homer in the fourth inning of the series opener. The robbery kept the game scoreless in the O's eventual 3-1 victory in 10 innings.

With Carlos Correa and Donovan Solano on base after inning-opening singles, Buxton lifted a high shot to straightaway center. Mullins leapt and caught the ball above the fence.

“Hate to do it to him, but that’s baseball,” Mullins said of the two Georgia natives who’ve worked out together in the past.

Buxton stopped at first base and slammed his helmet to the ground as the first act in a colorful sequence of emotions.

A sly hint of a smile slowly crept across his face as he stood staring with his hands on his hips in disbelief, and he then threw his arms up in the air in evident bewilderment before doffing his helmet to Mullins as a show of respect.

“It’s baseball,” Buxton said. “It is what it is. Good player. Can’t do nothing about it. Come back tomorrow and do it again.”

Perhaps Buxton was wondering why it had to happen to him again.

Five days ago in Baltimore, Mullins robbed Buxton of extra bases by running down a ball in the right-center-field gap, catching the ball with a back-handed leaping, tumbling grab that saw him hit the wall with his leg mid-flight before he rolled head-over-heels backwards. Mullins said it was the tougher of the two plays.

Mullins said he didn’t hear from Buxton after last week’s play but expected the Twins’ star would be looking for him this time around.

“Him also being an elite defender in the outfield, he’s definitely robbed a few people, as well,” Mullins said. “So, every once in a while, you get one given back to you.”

The beneficiary of both plays from Mullins was pitcher Cole Irvin, who was on the mound for both of Mullins’ robberies of Buxton hits.

“If Ced doesn’t make that play, we don’t win the game, and we’re not there in extras,” Irvin said. “Kudos to him and just what a great play. Timed it perfect. Looked better on the big screen in right field. I can watch that play a few more times tonight and be happy about it because he definitely saved me today, and saved the team.”

Such is life these days for an increasingly frustrated Buxton, who has had several hard-hit balls end up in highlight-reel plays in recent games, though he always finds time to tip his cap -- or helmet, rather -- to those opponents, because who could appreciate stellar glovework more than Buxton, the 2017 Platinum Glove Award winner?

Even before Mullins’ robbery last week, Buxton had been deprived of extra bases earlier on the road trip by Detroit left-fielder Andy Ibáñez on a similar leaping grab at the wall at Comerica Park. Earlier this homestand, he roped a liner down the third-base line that Royals third baseman Nicky López snagged on a full-extension dive.

But while Buxton continues to be verbally matter-of-fact about his poor luck, the frustration is clearly starting to show after he returned from an IL stint for a rib bruise in a 5-for-41 slump with 18 strikeouts in late June before he started squaring up more balls in the last week. A few hours after the helmet slam, he answered just one question about Mullins’ play on Friday before walking away.

“It’s frustrating, there’s no way around that,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s hitting balls good. I think bigger picture: He’s doing what we want him to do. He’s barreling balls up.”

It’s just a good thing for Buxton that the Twins will be done seeing the Orioles, and Mullins, after Sunday.

“I was like, ‘Man, it just continues to be you,’” Mullins said of his similar reaction to Buxton’s shrug. “He’s swinging the bat well. I keep robbing hits from him. So, just the way it goes sometimes.”