The Twins had multiple players in the All-Star Game for the first time since 2019:
How Buxton and Arraez fared in Tuesday's All-Star Game
The Twins' two All-Stars each went 1-for-2 and Buxton provided the game-winning hit with his fourth-inning home run.
July 20, 2022 at 3:32AM
Byron Buxton
• First All-Star Game at age 28. Started in center field between the Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton in left and Aaron Judge in right. Batted sixth in the order.
• First Twins outfielder to start the All-Star Game since 2002. Fourth Twin to start in center field, joining Tony Oliva (1967), Kirby Puckett (1986, 1989) and Torii Hunter (2002).
• Went 1-for-2 at the plate. Struck out swinging on four pitches against Miami's Sandy Alcantara in the second inning and followed up Stanton's home run in the fourth with a blast of his own on a 2-1 pitch from the Dodgers' Tony Gonsolin. Buxton, decked out in neon green shoes, pumped his arm as he's known to do as he rounded the bases. The 425-foot blast landed in the left-field seats and put the AL ahead 3-2. Buxton became the fourth Twin to homer in an All-Star Game and the first since Brian Dozier in 2015. In a postgame interview with Fox's Tom Verducci, Buxton said he told himself before his second at-bat: "I can't strike out twice."
Luis Arraez
• First All-Star Game at age 25. MLB's batting leader (.338) — also the AL leader in on-base percentage (.411) — made the team as a reserve infielder. The last Twins infielder to make the All-Star Game was Jorge Polanco (starting SS in 2019).
• Entered the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, replacing starting first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Recorded the first out of the inning, catching a foul pop off the bat of the Dodgers' Trea Turner. He later moved to third base.
• Went 1-for-2 at the plate. In his first plate appearance — in his introduction to the rest of the country — one of the game's best contact hitters struck out on three pitches to end the top of the fifth against Cincinnati's Luis Castillo. Arraez looked more like himself in eighth, fouling off two 0-2 pitches from St. Louis flame thrower Ryan Helsley before hitting a line drive that ate up second baseman Jake Cronenworth for a single.
Robust competition is likely for righthander Roki Sasaki, whose agent suggests a “smaller, midmarket” team might be a good route to take, but the Los Angeles Dodgers are said to be the favorites to land him.
