PHOENIX — No wonder Byron Buxton is on a hot streak. Apparently, he’s all jacked up on coffee.
At long last, the Minnesota Twins’ outfielder has found a comfortable routine in the cage, one he sought for months earlier this season. Buxton estimates he previously spent an hour before games trying to find his swing and often overthinking.
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Recently, Buxton discovered the feel he searched for and needs 15 minutes to prepare for a game. Buxton said he spends the additional 45 minutes drinking coffee.
The combination of Buxton’s offensive discovery and the extra coffee continues to fuel the Twins.
Buxton’s otherworldly blend of speed and power was on display Thursday as the Twins routed the Arizona Diamondbacks 13-6 at Chase Field and earned another series victory.
Buxton twice impacted the game with his legs before he delivered a jaw-dropping, three-run homer. He finished 3-for-4, reached on a hit-by-pitch, scored three runs and drove in three more for the Twins, who improved to 45-36 behind a 13-hit attack.
Rookie pitcher David Festa earned the victory in his major-league debut.
“It feels good, especially to (have) struggled the first few months,” Buxton said. “You’re still playing decent ball, but just not where you want to be. To finally find the thing that clicks is one less thing you really put in your head to worry about. You go to the cage and it’s like, ‘All right, get that feeling.’ It’s not, ‘All right, let’s do this, this, this and this.’ … I know what I want to feel. Go in there 15 minutes and it’s like I’m locked in.”
Despite a mostly healthy start — he missed 14 games in May with inflammation in his right knee — Buxton hadn’t found a groove at the plate in 2024. Whereas in previous seasons Buxton found ways to carry the Twins at times despite knee soreness, this year he was still searching.
As of June 5, Buxton carried a .639 OPS.
Though he felt healthy, Buxton admits it took him longer than he wanted to get comfortable in the box. But then everything clicked.
On Thursday, Buxton and the Twins began by unleashing a stream of singles at Arizona starter Jordan Montgomery. Ryan Jeffers, Buxton and Willi Castro singled in succession to start the second inning, Buxton’s speed influencing Castro’s hit as second baseman Ketel Marte fielded Castro’s grounder and realized he had no chance to retire Buxton and threw late to first.
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Manuel Margot singled in a run with one out to make it a 1-0 game and another run scored when Carlos Correa reached on catcher’s interference. An RBI fielder’s choice by Royce Lewis and a throwing error led to two more runs and Jose Miranda’s sacrifice fly and an RBI double by Carlos Santana increased the lead to 6-0.
Buxton began a two-run rally in the third inning with a leadoff infield single. Then in the fourth, Buxton’s raw power was put forth as he belted a three-run homer to make it 11-0, a 456-foot laser to deep center.
Byron Buxton launches one 456 feet!
The @Twins have scored 11 runs in the first 4 innings. 😯 pic.twitter.com/Yyw2f8il4b
— MLB (@MLB) June 27, 2024
Dating back to June 7, Buxton is hitting .355/.397/.645 with four homers, 14 RBIs and 14 runs in 68 plate appearances.
“It’s something he’s definitely capable of,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said earlier in the week. “We’ve seen seasons where he’s like that for the vast majority of the season. He looks really good now. He’s had a pretty nice long stretch right now where he looks really tight in his swing and he’s barreling up a lot of balls.”
Buxton acknowledged part of the hot streak could be due to his right knee feeling better. Earlier this month, Baldelli suggested Buxton’s stretches often rely on his ability to get lower and more into the ball.
When he’s not feeling as good, Buxton is standing upright in his stance. Either way, Buxton knows the bigger difference is in the confidence he feels upon exiting the cage.
“The first three months, I guarantee you I was in there for about an hour just trying to figure stuff out,” Buxton said. “You actually clogged yourself a little bit more trying to figure that stuff out. It’s all adjust and adapt. … I ain’t going to make no excuses. It could be (health) and it could not be, but it definitely feels good to be in a good position and feel that confidence and be the person that you know you should be.”
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With Buxton, Lewis and Carlos Correa all productive, the Twins’ offense continues to look like the front office hoped it would when the roster was constructed.
The team’s .839 OPS in June is the third-best in baseball. The team’s 138 runs scored is second.
The early outpouring set Festa up for success on Thursday.
MLB.com’s No. 99 prospect needed only 13 pitches to retire the side in the first inning. By the time he returned to the mound, Festa’s team was in front by six runs. Then it was eight. Before he knew it, Festa, who began his career with three no-hit innings, was working with an 11-0 lead.
“No pitcher will ever complain about run support,” Festa said. “They did a great job. Like I said, they made my job a lot easier.”
The Buxton-led offense also provided Festa with wiggle room.
His no-hit bid ended with Marte’s leadoff homer in the fourth inning. Arizona then forged a two-out rally, scoring three more runs with five straight hits.
But Festa escaped the jam with a seven-run lead and the Twins added on in the fifth. Lewis doubled in a run and Jose Miranda’s sacrifice fly made it 13-4.
Festa returned in the fifth and worked around a fifth run allowed.
Festa allowed five earned runs and seven hits in five innings, walking one and striking out two.
“Our offense did a nice job,” Baldelli said. “It gave us a nice cushion and some room and gave us the ability to let David pitch and our relievers. Having that ability helps everything you do and it helps guys pitch with confidence. You can still say I’m just going to pound the zone and see what happens because that’s the first step to pitching well. Through all of that, he didn’t get really flustered at all. He just continued to work hard and do the things we’ve asked him to do. It got him to a good place in the game. Then he went out in the fifth and did another good job, he was able to get through it. All things considered, it’s what you’re looking for from a good young starting pitcher.”
(Photo: Chris Coduto / Getty Images)
