CHICAGO — Just when you thought Byron Buxton had lost his sense of the dramatic, he went and made Twins history.
Bored with leadoff homers, too impatient to wait for a walk-off, Buxton provided his now-standard home run against the White Sox in the middle of Monday's game. Ho-hum. He's only homered in six straight meetings with Chicago.
But once the White Sox tied the score two innings later and threatened to take the lead, Buxton pulled off something even more breathtaking: He became the second outfielder in Twins history ever to start a triple play.
The dramatic defense allowed the Twins to force a 10th inning, where the offense finally awakened. Minnesota's first four-run inning in since June 22 earned the Twins a 6-3 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field and restored their AL Central lead to 3 games over Cleveland and 5 1/2 over Chicago.
Buxton's night will be remembered for a long time — or perhaps simply be lumped in with all his heroics in a breakout season. It certainly saved his team.
Jose Abreu led off the seventh inning against Griffin Jax with a ground-rule double that one-hopped the wall in left-center. After Jax hit Gavin Sheets with a two-strike slider, Yoan Moncada singled Abreu home, tying the game, 2-2.
Jax got ahead of A.J. Pollock with two quick strikes, but left a slider over the middle that the outfielder pounded toward the wall in right-center. Convinced that nobody could catch it, Moncada hustled toward second base, forcing Adam Engel, pinch-running for Sheets, to head toward third base and head for the plate.
Except that someone could indeed catch it: Buxton, who raced to the wall and snagged the ball on the run, just before running out of room. But that was just the beginning.
Buxton turned and fired the ball to Gio Urshela, who caught it midway between second and third base, where Moncada had stopped and begun retracing his steps. Urshela tagged Moncada for the second out, and continued on to touch second base, doubling up Engel for the third out. As players from both teams visibly began trying to figure out what they had just seen, Urshela threw the ball to Alex Kirilloff on first base, just in case, though Moncada had already been retired.
It was the 16th triple play in Twins history, and fifth just since 2017. Only once before, when Dan Gladden doubled up two Cleveland baserunners in the Metrodome on Aug. 8, 1988, had a Twins outfielder ever triggered a triple play.
The game featured solid performances by a couple of pitchers the Twins considered on last winter's free-agent market. Dylan Bundy, who the Twins chose to sign, allowed an Abreu home run, but little else in his five inning start. Johnny Cueto, who went unsigned until the White Sox made an offer on Opening Day, put plenty of runners on base — two double plays helped him survive five hits and five walks, with only Buxton's homer costing him a couple of runs in six innings.
Luis Arraez finally put the Twins ahead for good, though, slapping his third hit of the night, a single up the middle, to score pinch runner Gilberto Celestino, who began the inning on second base. Chicago reliever Joe Kelly walked the bases loaded — Tony LaRussa was ejected for protesting some of the calls — before a Jorge Polanco sacrifice fly and a two-run single by Alex Kirilloff produced a decisive lead.
