All eyes on Byron Buxton today — he held press conferences before and after his 0-for-4 debut — so here are a few leftovers from his big day:

— Buxton may take his job, but Aaron Hicks couldn't be more gracious about his new teammate's promotion. "I think it's exciting. I was in his shoes not too long ago. It's kind of cool to see a guy come up here for the first time, make his first major league start," the "veteran" 25-year-old outfielder said. Like Buxton, Hicks jumped to the majors directly from Class AA. What's the hardest part of that move? " "Just being comfortable in the box, being able to be relaxed," said Hicks, who went on the disabled list Sunday with a strained right forearm. "Know it's just baseball, know not to overdo things. Just go out there and play your game."

— Manager Paul Molitor said he considered his lineup Saturday night, and talked it over with his coaching staff on Sunday. He decided that Buxton's credentials as a leadoff hitter don't outweigh the care the Twins want to take in helping him adapt to the major leagues. That's why he batted ninth on Sunday. "It's tough enough coming up here for your first time, in his case probably more than most people with expectations. I didn't want to burden him with the responsibility of trying to hit leadoff right out of the chute," Molitor said. "That's probably an option that people might want to have the manager consider, but I think it's the right thing, to try to protect him a little bit, at least offensively."

— Buxton spent time before the game catching fly balls from coach Butch Davis, and going over all the dimensions of Globe Life Park's outfield. "He told me [that] the ball travels fast, make sure I take good angles," Buxton said. He caught a pair of fly balls during the game, including a relatively long run to deep right-center to catch Robinson Chirinos' fly ball in the sixth inning. Was anything difficult out there? "Nah, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Buxton said. "I thought the wind would play a bigger part than it did."