MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins lost to the Rangers 2-1 on Monday, going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. But that wasn't the most worrying outcome of the game.
Center fielder Byron Buxton left the game early with right hip tightness, making his availability for upcoming games questionable. The Twins are in the midst of playing 13 consecutive games, a stretch they've began going 1-3 against the Rangers and a measly 2-for-26 with runners in scoring position. And now they might have to finish the rest of the run without a key player.
The Twins fell to 62-58 in front of an announced crowd of 18,595 at Target Field and are now two games behind Cleveland in the American League Central and one ahead of the White Sox in third. The Rangers, at 56-66, sit in distant third in the West Division.
Buxton – who has dealt with right knee tendinitis all season and played 92 of the Twins' 120 games so far because of it – appeared to tweak that pesky injury in the process of striking out in the bottom of the fifth inning. He then went out to center field the next inning and had to make several plays, including just missing a diving lineout. Jake Cave entered the outfield for him in the seventh inning.
His right hip has bugged him before. Buxton missed several weeks early last season with a right hip strain.
The Twins briefly took the lead Monday in the fourth inning, thanks to a pair of extra-base hits. Gio Urshela smacked a leadoff triple before Nick Gordon drove him in on a double. Gordon actually thought he had hit a home run on an earlier pitch, and the Twins even challenged the foul ball call in right field. But the call stood, so Gordon had to settle for just one run instead of two.
That was Rangers starter Cole Ragans' final inning. He finished with five hits, one run, two walks and two strikeouts allowed in his four trips to the mound.
But the Rangers responded immediately, with Adolis Garcia delivering a solo home run of Sonny Gray's first pitch in the fifth inning. Texas took the lead against Gray in the following frame, allowing back-to-back singles to start the sixth before Corey Seager hit a RBI single that made it 2-1.
Gray (7-4) pitched six innings, giving up five hits and those two runs with a walk, a wild pitch and six strikeouts.
The Twins were trying to give Jorge Polanco a day off, as the second baseman still hasn't quite fully recovered from a minor left knee injury incurred a week ago sliding into home plate against the Royals. But he and Gary Sanchez ended up coming into the game in the bottom of the seventh to pinch hit toward the bottom of the lineup.
But their efforts for the rest of the game weren't enough to help the Twins break out of a hitting slump, despite a strong bullpen of Michael Fulmer, Griffin Jax and Caleb Thielbar allowing just one hit and no runs the rest of the night.
