Byron Buxton hits 30th home run as Twins end six-game skid with 5-1 victory over Royals

Phil Miller, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Sep 7, 2025

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Imagine how annoyed Byron Buxton must have been when the baseball he crushed in the first inning Sunday sailed into the left-field seats. Just hours earlier, he had complained about how his last eight hits — now nine — had been for extra bases.

“I actually would like to steal a damn bag once in awhile,” Buxton said.

OK, he was obviously joking about his incredible hot streak, though the fact that he hasn’t stopped at first base since Aug. 27, a remarkable 11 days ago, is certainly hampering his chances at becoming the team’s first 30-30 player. But the home run, his 30th of the season, served a more important purpose on Sunday: Helping to end another notable streak, the Twins’ six straight losses.

Kody Clemens also homered — the longest home run of his career, by far — and the Twins pulled away for a 5-1 victory at Kauffman Stadium, their first victory in seven games in September. And it sets up their opportunity, Monday night in Anaheim, Calif., to win back-to-back games for the first time in exactly one month.

Buxton spoke before the game about the Twins’ sorry state and the challenge of playing September games that mean little. Not hard at all, he said.

“When things not going right, you can still make things happen on the baseball field to try to jump-start things a little bit. It’s who I am. That’s what I’m trying to do,” the most-senior Twins player said. “People look at me quite a bit to make sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing as one of the leaders on the team. So I want to keep going out there and battling. Try to get us going.”

His eighth leadoff home run of 2025 certainly provided a lift for a team that had been outscored 46-22 by the White Sox and Royals over the past week. But there was some alarm, too, when he was hit on his left kneecap by a Michael Lorenzen pitch in the fifth inning. Buxton, diagnosed with a bruised knee, remained in the game for one more inning, but was then removed.

His teammates followed his lead, though. In the fourth inning, Clemens, stuck in a 3 for 21 slump, blasted a 3-1 slider 451 feet to straightaway center field, a two-run shot that was his 16th of the season and a full 36 feet longer than his previous career-high home run, which he hit off now-teammate Taj Bradley in May at Tampa Bay.

The Twins’ final two runs came courtesy of Royals’ mistakes — and OK, a Royce Lewis mistake, too. After Lewis singled off reliever Angel Zerpa, driving Luke Keaschall to third base in the sixth inning, he broke for second base a moment too early. Zerpa, seeing him running, tossed a pickoff throw to first base. When first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino threw the ball to second base, Keaschall broke for the plate, sliding home safely just ahead of the tag.

Oddly, the inning ended a moment later when Zerpa picked off Lewis at second base.

And in the seventh, reliever Daniel Lynch hit Edouard Julien with a pitch, gave up a single to Brooks Lee, and two outs later, walked Austin Martin and Matt Wallner, the latter free base forcing in the Twins’ final run.

Bailey Ober, 0-5 with a 5.00 ERA in his career vs. Kansas City, relied on changeups and sweepers in holding the Royals to just one run over 5 1/3 innings, striking out six. And though Kansas City put eight runners on base over the final three innings, they never managed to drive one home, allowing the Twins to salt away an increasingly rare victory.

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