Video (02:17) : Twins centerfielder Byron Buxton says he thought Miguel Cabrera's deep fly ball Friday would travel straight, but when it didn't, he had to make a last-minute adjustment.
DETROIT — A couple of extras from the Twins’ sixth straight win:
Byron Buxton thought Miguel Cabrera’s fly ball was headed straight for the center field wall when it was hit, but when he turned back, he discovered an alarming fact: It wasn’t.
“As hard as he hit it, I thought it was going to stay straight. But I took a glance at the wall and once I looked back I realized it was on [the other] side of my shoulder,” Buxton said. “I had a little bit of time to turn my head back the other way and pick the ball back up.”
Yeah, not much time. He had to dive — toward the wall, not away from it — for the ball.
“I knew I was close to the warning track. I measured off the warning track to know how many feet I had,” he said.
“I had a step or two before the wall was coming, so that made me more comfortable.”
Once the ball was secured, Buxton somersaulted to a stop at the base of the wall, then hopped up and pumped his fist in celebration.
"OH MY GOODNESS!" #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/mkjSYLd0uQ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 12, 2017
Best of all, Buxton said, was that it was a chance to make up for a similar play last week against Texas, in which he got to the ball, leaped, and didn’t make the catch. That play, manager Paul Molitor said, was as spectacular as this one, except for the finish.
“That’s a play that I didn’t make back home when the ball was slicing behind me,” Buxton said. “I was able to pick it up and I was able to make a good play to help our team out.”
XXX
Miguel Sano is the Twins’ most productive hitter, but it comes with a heaping helping of strikeouts. Sure, they may not be as damaging to an offense as once thought, but it’s still worth marveling over his pace.
Sano has already surpassed 150 strikeouts on the season, a territory that no other Twin has ever reached, and he’s zeroing in on his franchise record of 178, set last year. And how’s this for a bit of symmetry: Friday was Sano’s 300th career game — and the 150th in which he struck out at least twice.
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La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts.
Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.
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