{"id":663696,"date":"2026-04-05T00:20:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663696\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T00:20:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:20:39","slug":"byron-buxton-explains-minnesota-twins-resilience-after-win-against-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663696\/","title":{"rendered":"Byron Buxton Explains Minnesota Twins’ Resilience After Win Against Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Twins<\/a> needed 57 extra minutes just to get their home opener started on Friday, and the delay might have been the least chaotic part of the night.<\/p>\n

A power outage hit Target Field around 1:52 p.m., knocking out lights across the stadium and sending players scrambling in the dark.<\/p>\n

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Byron Buxton said he was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the team kitchen when it happened, surrounded by about 15 people who just stared at each other.<\/p>\n

None of it mattered in the end.<\/p>\n

Minnesota came out and hammered the Tampa Bay Rays 10-4 in front of 36,042 fans who stuck around through the cold, the rain, and the pregame chaos.<\/p>\n

Buxton Sets the Tone<\/p>\n

After the game, Buxton delivered a message that seemed to capture where this team’s head is at right now, especially after a rough 1-4 start on the road<\/a> to open the season.<\/p>\n

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“I learned over the last week how resilient we are,” Buxton told The Star Tribune. “We’re never out of a game.”<\/p>\n

It is not just talk either.<\/p>\n

The Twins showed that same energy during their series in Kansas City, where they rallied for eight runs over the final three innings of a 13-9 loss that was 12-2 at one point.<\/p>\n

That fight carried over into Friday, when Minnesota trailed 3-1 through four innings before the offense woke up with a massive seven-run seventh.<\/p>\n

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Backup infielder Tristan Gray, who grabbed the last roster spot on opening day, capped it off with a grand slam off Yeondrys Gomez that just barely cleared the 23-foot wall in right.<\/p>\n

Josh Bell added two hits and two RBIs, while Royce Lewis drove in a pair of runs to keep things rolling.<\/p>\n

Good News on Buxton’s Arm<\/p>\n

The one scary moment came in that big seventh inning when Kevin Kelly hit Buxton on the right forearm with a pitch, forcing him out of the game.<\/p>\n

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But X-rays came back negative for a fracture, and the team listed it as a right arm contusion.<\/p>\n

It is about the best news you could hope for given how important Buxton is to everything Minnesota does.<\/p>\n

Coming off a career year in 2025<\/a> where he hit 35 home runs and went 24-for-24 on stolen bases, losing him for any stretch would be a serious blow to a lineup that does not have a lot of margin for error.<\/p>\n

Where Things Stand<\/p>\n

The win moves Minnesota to 2-4 on the season, while Tampa Bay drops to 2-4 as well. Neither team is where they want to be, but for the Twins it is about the way they got this one.<\/p>\n

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Nobody picked them to do much this year, with many predicting just 72 wins and the payroll hovering around $105 million.<\/p>\n

Manager Derek Shelton has been pushing a “hunt the good” mentality since he took over, and his young players are buying in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Rays lead the majors with 10 errors through their first seven games, six of them by third baseman Junior Caminero, and that sloppiness played a huge role Friday.<\/p>\n

But Minnesota still had to take advantage, and they did exactly that when it counted.<\/p>\n

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The two teams run it back Saturday at Target Field with Steven Matz on the mound for Tampa Bay against Mick Abel.<\/p>\n

If Buxton’s arm checks out, expect him right back in the lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Twins needed 57 extra minutes just to get their home opener started on Friday, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,2223,3541,4682,2123,5158,822,60,3190,4,408,1359,1555,2550,68,2300,30756,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-663696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-byron-buxton","10":"tag-josh-bell","11":"tag-junior-caminero","12":"tag-kansas-city","13":"tag-mick-abel","14":"tag-minnesota","15":"tag-minnesota-twins","16":"tag-minnesotatwins","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-royce-lewis","19":"tag-ryan-mountcastle","20":"tag-steven-matz","21":"tag-tampa-bay","22":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","23":"tag-target-field","24":"tag-tristan-gray","25":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116349240981305805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}