Twins run into an old nemesis, lose to Cardinals

ST. LOUIS – When the Twins look back on Monday's 3-2 loss to the Cardinals, they'll remember it as the night Byron Buxton got his first hit — a triple, naturally.

That's way more pleasant than remembering it as yet another dominant performance by John Lackey, or their eighth loss in 10 games.

Buxton lined a 1-2 fastball off Lackey into the left-center gap in the eighth inning, and by the time the Cardinals tracked it down, he was coasting into third base, despite stumbling — "almost getting sniped," as he put it — around second base. Buxton scored a moment later on Brian Dozier's sacrifice fly — that's probably not the last time that combination will produce a run for the Twins — and received a rousing welcome in his dugout.

"It's a big relief. That's everybody's goal, to get that first hit out of the way. Usually that starts things rolling," Buxton said afterward. "I wasn't expecting to hit a triple, but that just tops it off."

Well, a full-speed, bone-jarring, catch of a fly ball while colliding with the wall might have topped it off, too, and Buxton nearly pulled that off as well on Randal Grichuk's third-inning smash. The rookie raced about 100 feet to left-center, put his glove up — and couldn't catch it at impact. Grichuk raced around to third base (he scored moments later on Jon Jay's single) while the Twins dugout, especially manager Paul Molitor, held its breath as the star rookie rolled around and finally rose to his feet.

Buxton was OK. "Just the wind knocked out of me a little bit," he said. As he laid on the warning track, "I was just figuring out what just happened. First time hitting the wall that hard. … Right before I hit the wall, I felt it hit my glove and the next thing I know, I hit the ground."

Come to think of it, Molitor said, he's seen that instinct, that lack of fear, before.

"We've seen here, for a couple of decades, players be fairly fearless out there in center field. Kirby [Puckett] and Torii [Hunter] — he's just one of those guys," Molitor said. "I've seen him play enough [to know] he's not intimidated by fences."

Or by John Lackey, either, though maybe he should be. The Twins sometimes look like they are.

Lackey extended his personal domination of the Twins to 16 consecutive scoreless innings Monday, before the Twins finally got to him, too late to salvage the game. Lackey didn't allow a hit until Brian Dozier's fourth-inning double, and didn't allow a run until Trevor Plouffe doubled in the seventh, then scored on Kurt Suzuki's two-out single. It was the first run scored by the Twins off the former Red Sox pitcher since May 19, 2013, and the first earned run he had allowed them in 23 innings.

Lackey was staked to a 3-0 lead on Grichuk's triple, and back-to-back home runs off starter Trevor May by Mark Reynolds and Yadier Molina. He gave one back on Suzuki's single, and then Buxton earned the other with his 13th triple of the season and first hit as a major leaguer. The ball, he said, will soon be the property of his 1-year-old son, Brixton.

"I think everybody in the dugout was thinking triple when he hit it. I don't think many balls in many gaps are going to stop him," Molitor said. "He just can get to third faster than most people. It's going to be fun to watch, especially if he can keep finding ways to hit the ball in the gap."