The distance between the Twins and Guardians in the AL Central Division remains at five games after both Minnesota and Cleveland won in extra innings on Saturday. The Twins needed 10 innings to beat the Rangers 9-7 while the Guardians defeated Tampa Bay 7-6 in 11 innings.
Minnesota was down 4-0 before they rallied with a solo homer from Donovan Solano in the third inning and then plated five runs in the fourth thanks to an RBI single off the bat of Ryan Jeffers, a two-run double by Michael A. Taylor and a two-run single by Solano.
The Rangers tied the game 6-6 with a sacrifice fly from Robbie Grossman off Twins right-hander Emilio Pagan in the eighth, and then neither team scored in the ninth.
The 10th inning was Minnesota as Carlos Correa and Max Kepler delivered RBI singles and then Jeffers gave the Twins a 9-6 lead with a sacrifice fly that scored Correa.
Texas got one back in the bottom of the 10th but Jhoan Duran struck out Josh Smith to end the game for his 24th save of the season.
Up next: Twins at Rangers, 1:35 p.m. CT Sunday
Byron Buxton injury update
Buxton, who hasn’t played since Aug. 1 because of a hamstring strain, left his game Friday with the St. Paul Saints with a sore patellar tendon in his right knee. The only update Saturday was Twins manager Rocco Baldelli suggesting that Buxton is day-to-day.
“He didn’t hurt himself. It’s just a matter of, the more he’s on his feet, the more his knee is feeling it right now,” Baldelli said, according to Phil Miller of the Star Tribune “He’s had this before. We’ll continue to treat it day-to-day, like we have all along. We still expect him back this year.”
“We’re going to continue to treat the situation day-to-day like we said we would from the start,” Baldelli continued, according to the Twins’ website. “He obviously is dealing with some soreness, and we’re going to wait until that soreness has resolved and he’s able to [play] in order to play again.”
If Buxton’s knee relegates him to designated hitter it will make adding him to the current lineup as the designated hitter a more difficult decision. Eddy Julien has been the DH recently and his bat isn’t one Minnesota wants to take out of the lineup, so getting Buxton on the field without sacrificing Julien would require Julien playing defense somewhere. That’s a problem because Julien is an infielder and every infield position is locked up with Royce Lewis at third, Carlos Correa at shortstop, Jorge Polanco at second base and Solano and soon-to-return Alex Kirilloff at first base.
Big decisions loom, but only if Buxton is able to return from his latest setback.
