Byron Buxton, MN Twins Escape Injury Scare

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Byron Buxton : Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles
Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins bats came through late AGAIN on Friday night, this time in their 2026 home opener against the Tampa Bay Rays.

After falling behind 3-0 through 2.5 innings, the Twins tied it up with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third inning. From there, lasted one more scoreless inning before handing a tied game over to the extremely volatile bullpen.

Minnesota Twins bats go off in home opener

But at least this time, on the first Friday of the 2026 MN Twins season, the bullpen pitched five innings of one-run baseball. Then in bottom of the 7th, after they had already small-balled their way to a 6-3 lead, shortstop Tristan Gray — in his Target Field debut — hit this grand slam to put Minnesota up 10-3 and virtually end the game.

Outside of Gray’s grand slam, the Twins got nice games from Josh Bell (2-5, 2 RBI, 2 R) and Luke Keaschall (2-5, 2 R). But really, Minnesota produced a lot of its offense Friday with patience, not power.

And that’s not even a power outage joke. This afternoon/evening, the MN Twins scored two runs via back-to-back walks in the 7th — before Gray’s homer. Speaking of Tristan, he drove in a fifth run today via sacrifice fly, earlier in the game.

Byron Buxton leaves game after HBP

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news today at Target Field. Earlier in the 7th, before the Twins’s offense went ballistic, Byron Buxton was hit by a pitch on the inside of his right elbow/forearm.

Not only did it look and sound like it hurt, but Buck immediately dropped the bat and walked to the clubhouse, without even stopping to question whether or not he had to leave the game.

Related: Still Missing: Minnesota Twins Defense

Byron Buxton is hitting just .154 on the season so far, with 0 home runs and just 1 RBI. Obviously, it’s way too early for that to matter. However, it’s worth noting that this HBP struck at pretty much the same spot as the pitch that hit him in the World Baseball Classic just a couple of weeks ago.

When Buck took the direct shot, then walked off the field without hesitation, it was easy to assume the worst. Even though Buxton has stumbled out of the gates, offensively, there is no doubting how important he is to their small window for success in 2025.

MN Twins, Byron Buxton bring good injury news postgame

That’s why it was extremely encouraging news after today’s 10-4 win over the Rays, when both Byron Buxton and Derek Shelton revealed to reporters that his injury is nothing more than a contusion, and that X-Rays came back negative.

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