MINNEAPOLIS -- During the bottom of the sixth inning on Tuesday night at Target Field, the Twins showed a highlight from across the Mississippi River on the big scoreboard, featuring Byron Buxton smashing a line drive to the right-field wall at CHS Field in St. Paul and tearing around the bases for a triple.

Seconds later, Rob Refsnyder was slow to get up at second base after a game-tying RBI double and was eventually diagnosed with left hamstring tightness. Not soon after a promising glimpse of what the Twins have been waiting for throughout this tough season graced fans’ eyes, the challenges of the present flared up again on the field, with mistakes by the Minnesota defense and another tough day from the bullpen leading to an 8-4 loss to the Yankees at Target Field.

• Box score

“It's not like they were hitting the ball around the ballpark,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But as we talked about, sometimes, it doesn't really come down to that. It comes down to just trying to have a good at-bat, use the whole field. The things we talk about a lot. And we saw it happen against us out there tonight.”

The Twins had just gotten Refsnyder back from a concussion that had sidelined him for seven days, and the emergency center fielder continued his hot hitting with a single in the second inning and the RBI double before another exit, which sent Kyle Garlick back into center and Alex Kirilloff -- who pinch-ran for Refsnyder -- to right field.

It’s a good thing that Buxton went 2-for-3 with a walk, single and triple in his first rehab game for Triple-A St. Paul, meaning the seemingly endless revolving door in the Twins’ outfield could soon come to a halt, even if this represents another setback for Refsnyder.

“He hit the ball off the wall and went flying around for a triple just like everybody's seen him do a thousand times,” Triple-A manager Toby Gardenhire said. “That was fun to watch. It was fun to watch for everybody, except for me, who has to worry about him getting hurt the whole time.”

Baldelli said after the game that his “gut” was that Refsnyder’s injury, which was described as a strain, wouldn’t impact Buxton’s rehab timeline, though the skipper hadn’t yet had a chance to discuss the new developments with president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine.

The original plan was for Buxton to start in center field and play a partial game on Wednesday for St. Paul before the Twins would re-evaluate his status.

But even Buxton’s return won’t be a fix-all for this Twins team, which again committed costly mistakes in key moments that swung the outcome of a game.

Willians Astudillo couldn’t cleanly field a grounder at third base in the sixth, leading to an unearned go-ahead run for the Yankees on Brett Gardner’s sacrifice fly. And in the pivotal eighth, a pair of miscues led to both runs in New York’s go-ahead rally.

Following singles by Clint Frazier and Miguel Andújar, Brett Gardner bunted them to second and third, before DJ LeMahieu hit a sharp grounder into a drawn-in infield. Second baseman Jorge Polanco made a sliding stop to his right and threw wide of home plate, allowing the go-ahead run to score.

On the next play, Polanco fielded another grounder off the bat of Aaron Judge and flipped for the force to second, where Andrelton Simmons’ foot left second base early in his effort to make a strong throw to first for the inning-ending double play. That allowed another run to score.

The Twins have seen these types of issues flare up throughout the season. Like on Opening Day, when misplays by Max Kepler and Simmons contributed to a Milwaukee rally. Or in a 13-12 loss to Oakland on April 21, when consecutive errors in the 10th led to a loss. Or last Thursday, when two errors on one play by rookie Gilberto Celestino led to the go-ahead run scoring for the Royals.

“Playing fundamental baseball is something we're going to have to do in order to stay in ballgames and win ballgames,” Baldelli said. “But I'm not concerned about the particular plays we saw today, mainly because of why. We were trying to stay in the ballgame. If we play conservatively on those plays all the time, that's a challenge in its own right.”

Perhaps the energy around Buxton’s return -- whenever it comes -- could help things fall into place.