Byron Buxton Credits Teammates for Keeping Him Sane Through Slow Start

Byron Buxton Credits Teammates for Keeping Him Sane Through Slow Start

The Minnesota Twins dropped a 9-5 game to the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday at Target Field, snapping a stretch where they had won eight of nine and looked like one of the surprising stories in baseball.

The loss moves Minnesota to 11-8, still good enough to lead the American League Central, while Boston climbed to 7-11 and sits at the bottom of the AL East.

It was a messy afternoon for the Twins, but one player who finally turned a corner was Byron Buxton, and he was honest about the last few weeks.

Buxton Opens Up on a Rough Start

Buxton opened the year in a real funk, and he admitted after the game that trying to force his swing did not help.

He finished the opening stretch hitting .182 with ten hits in 55 at-bats and no home runs through 14 games, an OPS under .550 that had people wondering if the slow spring had caught up with him.

"Obviously, three weeks and nine at-bats, that'll set you back a little bit," Buxton said. "I think I tried to rush my swing back within the first couple weeks. It was like, 'I know you ain't got it, but we're still going to go out here and get a hit.' But it's not that easy. It's baseball. My teammates did a good job of keeping me sane."

Buxton was referring to the layoff that started at the World Baseball Classic, where he got only a handful of at-bats for Team USA and came home without much rhythm.

He tried to force things before admitting the timing was not there yet.

The Power Finally Shows Up

Things clicked on Monday.

Buxton hit his first homer of the year against Boston, a 420-foot shot to straightaway center that also happened to be his 85th career homer at Target Field, the most by any player in the ballpark's history.