Byron Buxton makes Target Field look tiny.
When he runs, the outfield suddenly seems small as a bocce ball court. When he drives a ball toward the upper deck in left field, he makes this large, cantilevered structure look like it's made out of a child's Legos.
He might be the best player in baseball — or, as his manager put it, "in the world" — and his two home runs Sunday vaulted the Twins into first place in the AL Central.
Buxton's feats wouldn't matter much in the standings, though, if the Twins hadn't turned an empty pitching cupboard into what is currently the most effective rotation in the AL.
Sunday, before Buxton's upper-deck blast in the 10th gave the Twins a 6-4 victory over the White Sox, Twins' fifth starter Chris Archer pitched only three innings, giving up two runs, in part so the Twins could keep developing future starter Josh Winder.
Only a couple of weeks ago, it would have been fair to describe the Twins rotation as an odd experiment. They ended the 2021 season with maybe two starting pitchers they wouldn't mind running to the mound in 2022. Both were rookies, and one had pitched 26 ⅔ innings in the big leagues.
Their leaders in innings pitched in 2021 were Jose Berrios (traded), Michael Pineda (lost in free agency), Kenta Maeda (Tommy John surgery, may not return this year), J.A. Happ (traded), Bailey Ober (rookie), and Griffin Jax (struggling rookie).
The Twins somehow improved their staff without spending much money or trade capital. Entering Sunday, they had the lowest ERA in the AL for starting pitchers (2.73), walks and hits per inning pitched (0.98), the second-lowest batting average and OPS allowed (.206 and .617).