Buxton, Ryan Reach Career Milestones As Twins Take the Padres Series

Minneapolis – The Minnesota Twins and San Diego Padres have always had the home-field advantage over the other team in recent years. The Padres took two out of three against the Twins at Petco Park in 2022 and 2024, and Minnesota took two out of three against them at Target Field in 2023.

Even after a dismal 12-3 loss to the Padres on Saturday night, the Twins still had the opportunity to squeeze out the rubber match against them early Sunday afternoon. With staff ace Joe Ryan on the mound, and the Padres running out a bullpen game, things appeared to be in Minnesota’s favor.

Then, Byron Buxton gave the Twins the first lead of the game on his 29th home run of the year in the top of the third to make it 2-0, making it a lot easier for Ryan to go out and provide seven scoreless innings in their 7-2 victory.

“It’s become one of those things where almost every day you come in and [Buxton is] doing something even more impressive or setting some new mark and doing something great,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “Another really great day for him out of the DH slot, where he doesn’t spend too much time, but I think he’s getting even more comfortable there, too. Some great swings, hits the offspeed pitch out front.”

“Each at-bat, his swing doesn’t look violent at all, and it comes off the bat at 105, 110 [mph] every time,” said Ryan. “So it’s been fun to watch. Stealing bases, it’s smooth. He knows what he’s doing, times it out, and obviously has blinding speed.”

The new career high in home runs in 103 games puts him just one shy of 30 home runs this season. His 29th home run also moved him up one place in Minnesota’s all-time rankings at 12th with 162, surpassing former teammate Max Kepler, who hit 161 with the Twins. He also tied Kepler for the most home runs in Target Field history at 84, so whenever he hits his next one, Buxton will officially become Target Field’s home run king.

While he’s now one homer away from 30 this season, Buxton isn’t fixating on milestones. He’s more focused on getting out on the field every day he can over the final 27 games of the year. Then, he’ll reflect on his accomplishments once the season’s over.

“I also got 27 more games to do more damage,” he said. “So right now is probably not the best time to ask me about 29 homers. In 27 more games, it’s different. I’ll be able to look back and reflect a little bit on what the season is, and we can kind of go from there. But right now, I’ve still got more work to do.”

Ryan finished August with his best start of the month. He may have come up one strikeout short of 700 in his career. Still, he had his first scoreless outing since June 25 against the Seattle Mariners at Target Field. Ryan still produced 17 swings and misses, 15 coming off his fastball versus the Padres lineup, one of his highest for the season. He also had impeccable command of the strike zone, with 75 of his 104 pitches landing in the zone.

“I just tried to attack kind of the same as normal,” said Ryan. “Just see what happens. Made good pitches, called good pitches. I thought Jeffers did a good job today. The other side is just, balls were hit at guys a lot more. So it was a benefit for sure.”

“Joe went right at them. He had his good, explosive stuff out there today,” said Baldelli. “The fastball played really well. Threw some good sinkers, actually, too. Kind of got them off the four-seamer pretty good and used enough of his offspeed stuff effectively to keep them guessing enough.”

The real test for Ryan came when he needed to get his last out in the seventh with a runner on third and Fernando Tatis Jr. at the plate. He was up on Tatis with a 1-2 count before Tatis battled back, fouling a couple of pitches off and drawing a couple of balls. Ryan threw a gutsy 96.2 mph fastball down the middle of the zone to get Tatis to chase it, and it fouled tipped into Ryan Jeffers‘ glove to capitalize on Ryan’s scoreless outing.

“You can throw pitches in the zone, and they’re not going to get called, and you can throw pitches outside the zone, and they’re going to get called,” said Ryan. “So, at the end of the day, until the guy’s walking back to the dugout, it’s not over. So, stay locked in. I think it’s a good way. End with a strikeout. Good heater. I’ll take it, middle-middle.”

The Twins will be able to add two players to their roster tomorrow when rosters expand in September. There’s still no word on who they will call up, but it’s more than likely that they’ll add one pitcher and one position player to the lineup.