Byron Buxton hits 30th home run as Twins end six-game skid with 5-1 victory over Royals

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Imagine how annoyed Byron Buxton must have been when the baseball he crushed in the first inning Sunday sailed into the left-field seats, his career-high-extending 30th home run. Only hours earlier, he had complained about how his past eight hits — now nine — had been for extra bases.

“I actually would like to steal a damn bag once in a while,” Buxton said.

OK, he was obviously joking about his incredible hot streak, though the fact that he hasn’t stopped at first base since Aug. 29, a remarkable stretch of nine days, is certainly hampering his chances of becoming the team’s first 30-30 player. But the home run served a more important purpose Sunday: It helped end another notable streak, the Twins’ six consecutive losses.

Kody Clemens also homered — the longest home run of his career, by far — and the Twins pulled away for a 5-1 victory over Kansas City, their first win of September. And it sets up their opportunity, Monday night in Anaheim, Calif., to win back-to-back games for the first time in exactly a month.

Buxton still has time to add to his 21 stolen bases this season, should he ever go back to hitting singles. But by homering Sunday, he became the second Twins player with a 30-20 season, joining Kirby Puckett in 1986.

“Buck’s not about his own milestones, but you know presenting him with the ball in the clubhouse and seeing that when he takes a moment to appreciate something and enjoy something, you know it’s special to him. This is one of those,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s having a pretty amazing season right now.”

Buxton spoke before the game about the Twins’ sorry state and the challenge of playing September games that mean little.

“When things are not going right, you can still make things happen on the baseball field to try to jump-start things a little bit. It’s who I am. That’s what I’m trying to do,” the most-senior Twin said. “People look at me quite a bit to make sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing as one of the leaders on the team. So, I want to keep going out there and battling. Try to get us going.”

His eighth leadoff home run of 2025 certainly provided a lift for a team that had been outscored 46-22 by the Chicago White Sox and the Royals over the past week. But there was some alarm, too, when he was hit on his left kneecap by a pitch from Michael Lorenzen (5-10) in the fifth inning. Buxton, diagnosed with a bruised knee, remained in the game for one more inning before being removed.

“We’ll see how he wakes up tomorrow,” Baldelli said. “He should be fine.”

His teammates followed his lead. In the fourth inning, Clemens, stuck in a 3-for-21 slump, blasted a 3-1 slider 451 feet to center field, a two-run shot that was his 16th home run of the season. The homer was a full 36 feet longer than his previous longest home run, which he hit off now-teammate Taj Bradley in May.

“I’ve had longer ones in the minor leagues,” Clemens said. Still, he was surprised, he said, that it carried so far. “I’ve had a ton like that to center field that just died. It helped that it was a slider, had some backspin that carried it.”

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The Twins’ final two runs came courtesy of Royals mistakes — and OK, a Royce Lewis mistake, too. After Lewis singled off reliever Angel Zerpa, driving Luke Keaschall to third base in the sixth inning, he broke for second base a moment too early. Zerpa, seeing him running, tossed a pickoff throw to first base. When first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino threw the ball to second base, Keaschall broke home, sliding safely just ahead of the tag.

And in the seventh, reliever Daniel Lynch hit Edouard Julien with a pitch, gave up a single to Brooks Lee, and, two outs later, walked Austin Martin and Matt Wallner to force in the Twins’ final run.