Cruz ready for any role on Interleague road trip

PHILADELPHIA -- Nelson Cruz brought two outfield gloves on this National League road trip through Citizens Bank Park and Citi Field -- and he said with a smile that he even owns a second-base glove that was once given to him by former Mariners teammate Robinson Canó.

Rest assured, Cruz won't be seeing any action at second base outside of pregame drills, but he also wasn't slotted into the outfield in the Twins' Interleague opener against the Phillies on Friday night. Manager Rocco Baldelli maintained that Cruz is available to play the field, but the 38-year-old slugger is also able to see the upside of his temporary absence from the starting lineup.

"I see it as, 'OK, let's rest,'" Cruz said. "So I'll take whatever days I can get, and make sure that my body is fresh. So when the time comes to play 15 [days] in a row, you've got some energy in the back to push forward. You just take the positives of whatever comes and just stick with it."

Even with Byron Buxton out of the starting lineup again on Friday, Baldelli gave the start in right field to Jake Cave instead of Cruz, who only appeared in right field in four games last season with the Mariners. He started three of Seattle's 10 games at National League ballparks and pinch-hit in three others.

Through five games, Cruz is tied for the team lead in hits, with six, and also has a club-leading six RBIs. He expects to make at least one start in the outfield this week, but Baldelli alluded to the media that he likes the freedom to deploy Cruz based on situations, with the freedom to leave him in the outfield if needed.

"He looked good out there," Baldelli said. "He says he can do it. I think we could see that, but I like probably for most games having the ability to use him at any given point with the option of keeping him in the game if we need to."

Cruz said that his preparation wouldn't change much based on his altered role over the next week, and he will keep himself ready to enter the game in any inning, though he expects Baldelli to give him advance warning about his usage.

Cruz is one of four players on the Twins' expanded six-man bench that could play the outfield, along with Ehire Adrianza, Willians Astudillo and Buxton.

"You can kind of look at it one way and say you want to have Nelson in there every day starting [and] getting as many at-bats as you can," Baldelli said. "But also knowing that you have him available to come in to any important situation is also a nice luxury to have. As far as putting him in the field, we've already made it clear that he's available to play in the field."

Buxton expects to be fully available following recovery from outfield collision

Buxton was out of the starting lineup for a second straight game Thursday, following his collision with the center-field wall at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday, but he maintains that he's back to normal and said he expects to be fully available for the series against the Phillies.

"I think it’s more precautionary," Buxton said. "I feel good. I’m about to go swing in the cage, do my normal routine. Normal day."

He entered Wednesday's game against the Royals as a pinch-runner in the ninth and stole second base before scoring the game-winning run on Eddie Rosario's RBI single. Buxton said that he hadn't swung a bat since Tuesday, but he seemed confident in his progress, and Baldelli said that Buxton would be available if he passed some evaluations leading up to the game.

Buxton had said that the incident reminded him of the collision with the center-field wall on a leaping catch at Yankee Stadium during the 2017 American League Wild Card Game that eventually resulted in his removal from the game. But he maintained that the collisions wouldn't deter him from playing his all-out style in the outfield.

"It’s one of those things, yeah, I don’t shy away from," Buxton said. "It’s one of those things that my dad kind of was [like], 'If you’re going to play, you’re going to play 110 percent,' and like, go get it, so it’s pretty instilled in me. It’s no cruise control with me."

He said it

"The fact that we played in the World Series here and didn't win, ultimately, you do kind of reflect on that and think about that a lot. But when you're playing playoff baseball and playing in some of the most meaningful games of your life, ultimately those are great memories and things you'll never forget. The atmosphere here was very unique and it made it fun. It gave some character and some flavor for the guys that were out there." -- Baldelli, on returning to Citizens Bank Park, where he played in the 2008 World Series with the Rays