Christin Stewart launched a drive to center field in the third inning Sunday. Byron Buxton turned and headed toward the wall. And everyone at Target Field knew that Buxton was about to do it, again.
The Twins center fielder went back and to his left. As he reached the warning track, he checked for the wall, refocused on the ball, then jumped. He caught the ball just before slamming into the wall for his latest spectacular catch.
"Yeah," manager Rocco Baldelli said after the Twins beat Detroit 6-4. "That's what he does."
Buxton, of course, was down on the ground for a few seconds after the play. So everyone had to wait to make sure he didn't injure himself because, well, that's also happened before. But he got up and slapped hands with right fielder Max Kepler.
Buxton added 15 pounds of muscle during the offseason, he said, so he could handle crashes into the wall like on Sunday.
"Once I took off, I told myself I was getting it," Buxton said. "[There] wasn't no stopping me then. It was either I was going to catch it or I was going to hit the wall. One of the two. Luckily I got both."
He said being able to check for the wall was key for him being able to time his leap. Kepler also was yelling at him where he was in relation to the wall. Buxton had to reach back for the ball, but he pulled it off.
Still, he said it wasn't good enough to make his already long list of best catches — because he didn't hit the wall as hard as he has other times.