Minneapolis – The Minnesota Twins were on the road just two days ago when the city was victim to another tragedy.
On Wednesday morning, there was a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Southwest Minneapolis. A former student at Annunciation killed two school children, an eight-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. Additionally, 15 students were injured, along with three parishioners in their 80s.
The Twins still had one more game to play on the road against the Toronto Blue Jays when the shooting took place. Before the start of the series finale, Rogers Centre held a moment of silence in honor of the victims of this shooting, and the Twins did the same in their return home Friday night, with a candlelight vigil at home plate.
Byron Buxton wrote ‘Prayers A.C.S.’ on his hat to honor the victims. While this moment has many reflecting on the bigger aspects of life rather than baseball, a sporting event can provide a place for people to heal with their community. The Twins provided a place of healing on and off the field, and Buxton led the way in their 7-4 victory.
After playing 100 games for the second season in a row, the next feat Buxton had to accomplish was pilfering his 20th bag of the year to get his first 20 home run, 20 stolen base season in his career. As long as he got on first, he’d have an opportunity to accomplish that on Friday.
Buxton reached base on a fielder’s choice in the third and advanced to second when Ryan Jeffers drew a walk in the next at-bat. So when he took off to steal third base for the first time in his MLB career to accomplish the 20/20 season, it came as a surprise to almost everyone in the ballpark – except Buxton.
“Byron Buxton stole third base, which was awesome,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “He came into my office. He never comes in the office too often by himself, but he walked right in there after the game for some high fives. He was pretty fired up.”
The Twins have made an effort to be more aggressive on the basepaths since the trade deadline, and Friday was an example of what that can look like when they take calculated risks.
One inning later, as the Twins sent every man to the plate for a four-run fourth inning, Buxton legged out another stolen base from first to second to make it 21 on the year. Matt Wallner also stole two bases for his first multi-stolen base game of his career, adding to the excitement of what this team can do when they run the bases well.
Buxton is now the seventh player in Twins history to join the 20/20 club alongside Larry Hisle (1977), Kirby Puckett (1986), Marty Cordova (1995), Corey Koskie (2001), Torii Hunter (2002 and 2004), and Brian Dozier (2014).
He’s only three home runs away from 30 and nine stolen bases away from the illustrious 30/30 club. With only 28 games left on the schedule, Buxton can make a run at joining the 30/30 club. Even if he comes up short, it’s still a big accomplishment for him to break into the 20/20 club this year.
“Yeah, the way he’s played, he’s going to hit a lot of marks. He really is,” Baldelli said. “He’s not even close to done right now. He looks terrific. His legs, he’s flying around the bases. He’s doing everything he would like to do. Every day he could do something different and wow you and put up some huge number and impress us again, and he’ll continue to do that.”
“That guy is awesome,” said Trevor Larnach. “You can’t say enough about him. The year he’s had, and he’s been healthy, thankfully, I think he’s the best center fielder in the game. Maybe biased, maybe not, I don’t care, I think he is.”
Zebby battles the swinging friars
Zebby Matthews faced one of his greatest challenges yet against the Padres. San Diego’s lineup is filled with All-Stars like Fernando Tatis Jr., Ryan O’Hearn, and Jake Cronenworth, former Twins batting champ Luis Arráez, and future Hall of Famer Manny Machado.
As intimidating as the names can appear to fans, Matthews locked in and shoved for six innings. He allowed seven hits but only two earned runs, no walks, and struck out three.
“That definitely felt good,” said Matthews. “You definitely try not to focus too much about the names in the lineup or anything like that, but it really felt good to get out there and have a chance in the seventh and do what I can to help the team win.”
First time around, Matthews was challenged by a couple of singles that didn’t see the runners advance. However, he had a hard time in the third after allowing a runner to reach on a routine play just short of the pitcher’s mound. Still, Matthews was able to limit the damage, with only one of two runners scoring on an Arráez sac fly.
“Yeah, I guess I should have fielded that one with my glove,” said Matthews. “It was good to hold them to the one run, you know, just continue to attack. Try not to be too fine with it. When Arráez comes up, it’s going to be an almost impossible guy to strike out, so I was able to put the ball in play there.”
Matthews would at least get to start the seventh, marking only the second time he pitched into the seventh inning of a start all year. However, he had to face Gavin Sheets a third time, who was already 2-for-2 against him in the game.
Sheets got another hit to end Matthews’ night. Still, Matthews’ limited walks and damage on the base paths allowed him to make a successful start to build off of for the season’s final stretch.
