MINNEAPOLIS -- Byron Buxton was out of the starting lineup for a second straight game in Thursday's 1-0 win over the Guardians with a continued flare-up in the tendinitis in his right knee that makes it too painful for him to swing and run. Despite that, the Twins maintained that there are no plans for their center fielder to go on the injured list.

Buxton had also missed Wednesday's 11-10 loss to Cleveland with the chronic knee pain and swelling, which the Twins had been managing day to day since the start of the season. The club will continue to do so, with the hope that Buxton's knee will improve enough for him to play within one or two days.

"He's done an admirable job and he's going to continue to do an admirable job going forward dealing with this," manager Rocco Baldelli said before the series finale at Target Field. "But, like I said, when you literally cannot swing or run, you can't play the game.

"And there have been other days this year, earlier in the season, where he couldn't do those things and he doesn't play those days. And there are other days where we have to get him a day off his feet so it doesn't get to the point where we're talking like this."

"We're good," Buxton said. "Do what we've got to do to keep me on the field. It's just one of those things with unfortunate timing. Happened in a divisional series, and obviously, I don't want to miss it. It is what it is, and for me, it's just, like I said, staying on the field, staying healthy. And making sure I'm there for my teammates."

Why not place Buxton on the IL, then? Baldelli said there's no guarantee that would even resolve the issue. What the Twins don't want is for Buxton to have to miss a sizeable chunk of games and then be right back where they started within a matter of days upon his return.

"If it's going to be something if he took significant time off, would he just be dealing with the same symptoms within a few games of returning? That's possible, too," Baldelli said. "We don't know the answer to that. Nobody can really know the answer to that question."

Both Baldelli and Buxton indicated that the knee hadn't gotten better since the start of the season. Baldelli said the condition is made worse by "overall activity," which plays into Buxton's absences from the lineup -- some as a result of pain, some preventative. Buxton has been dealing with it since Spring Training, Baldelli said it's not the direct result of a slide into second base in Boston on April 15, as had previously been thought.

Even with all of that, Buxton has been one of the more productive sluggers in the Majors. Buxton's 19 homers entering Thursday had him tied for the fifth most in MLB and matched his career high. And though these painful days flare up, the Twins' management of Buxton's situation has largely worked to this point, as this marks his first time missing consecutive games since May 8 and 10. He has played in 51 of Minnesota's 70 games (73 percent), the second-highest rate of his career.

This is something that seemingly isn't going to get better quickly, and the Twins have already seen painful days like this throughout the season followed by enough recovery for Buxton to consistently play and contribute at the highest level, Baldelli said. That's what they expect again -- and they feel he'll again be back in the lineup in the coming days.

"You never know [how it will feel]," Buxton said. "See how you wake up. It's just one of those things, where I know I've got to deal with it. Make sure I stay on top of it and not try to push through things. I know my teammates have got my back. The maturity in starting to figure out, I know they've got my back, so for me to have their back is for me to be healthy. Right now, it's a tough couple of days, but everything's going good. Hopefully get back out there tomorrow and go from there."

"All the imaging that we’ve done has been run by several doctors, who all have come together and think that the way that we’re proceeding is the right way to proceed with him," Baldelli added.