Postgame: Baldelli, Rogers squabble; Buxton survives another collision

Devin Smeltzer was the story of the night, but there were a few other details to go over, too. Most important of them: Byron Buxton's condition. Here are a handful of extras from Target Field, which will be empty for the next 13 days:

Buxton got a glove on Yasmani Grandal's second-inning smash to the center field wall, but the wall got more of him. The Twins' platinum glove center fielder leapt into the wall, struck his head on the chain-link fence, and fell hard to the ground. Manager Rocco Baldelli and trainer Tony Leo ran to him as he laid on the warning track, and helped him to his feet.

After a short discussion, Baldelli chose to remove Buxton from the game, and he was eventually diagnosed with a bruised right knee.

"I feel fine," Buxton said after the game. "It's just one ofthose things where I come out to get looked at, just to be precautionary."

The impact with the wall wasn't bad, Buxton said, despite how it looked on replays. "It was more [painful] when I hit the ground," Buxton said. "Not too much give either way."

Buxton said he tried to argue with Baldelli. "I wanted to stay in," he said. "I wanted to do what I could to try to help us win."

But the manager said it's not a difficult decision. "In situations like that, the answer is almost always just to get the guy in [the clubhouse] and get him looked at," Baldelli said. "He's in good shape. He'll be fine going forward."

With Buxton out, the nightly outfield highlight came courtesy of Max Kepler, who moved from right field to center when Buxton departed. With Ryan Braun on second base in the fourth inning, Mike Moustakas rocketed a long fly ball to the fence, where Kepler made a leaping catch.

Kepler fumbled the ball as he grabbed it out of his glove, and Braun, halfway to third base, was unsure whether he had caught it. Moustakas didn't know, either, and though first base umpire Ramon De Jesus signaled it was a catch, the batter headed for second base. Braun started back to second, but seeing Moustakas headed there and now worried about two Brewers occupying the same base, turned around and went to third.

The out stood, however, and Kepler simply threw to second base, where Jorge Polanco tagged the base and Braun was called out on an unusual double play. The Brewers challenged, but the call stood, and Kepler was credited with his second assist of the season. That's 12 overall for Twins' outfielders, a total which leads the AL.

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Taylor Rogers was summoned from the bullpen to pitch the ninth inning, and he was greeted with a home run by Yasmani Grandal, the second straight night that the Twins' lefthander has allowed a home run. He recovered by striking out Moustakas and Jesus Aguilar and was one out away from ending the game.

Just a heat-of-the-moment squabble, Baldelli said later.

"I mean, he wants to pitch. He's a hell of a pitcher. He wanted to finish the game," Baldelli said. "That's a very normal reaction when you go out there and get a guy with out one remaining in the game. I consider him one of the best relief pitchers in baseball, and I want him to want to be out there."

But Baldelli said he had another consideration, too. Rogers threw 25 pitches on Monday, when he took the loss after allowing Orlando Arcia's two-run homer. And he had faced one batter on Sunday, too.

"He's pitched three days in a row, and the last thing I would want is to leave him out there to have another long at-bat or two and to just make him — it really comes down to throwing so many pitches in such a short period of time," Baldelli said of Rogers, who was lifted after 12 pitches on Tuesday. "Our job is to win games, but also look after our players. I have no issue with him wanting to stay in the game."