Buxton added more highlights to his career year on Thursday, hitting a pair of home runs to account for all of the Twins’ runs in a 4-0 win against the Rangers at Globe Life Field. He opened the game with a leadoff homer, then added a three-run shot for insurance in the eighth inning. Both big flies came on the first pitch, and both went to nearly the same spot behind the center-field fence.
“Got a good workout in, I’ll say that,” Buxton said with a laugh after the game.
They were the 33rd and 34th homers of the year for Buxton, extending what was already a career high. With four RBIs, he extended his career-high total to 82, and with 96 runs scored on the season, has an outside shot at reaching the century mark for the first time in his career.
With Thursday being his 124th game of the season, Buxton is going to finish 2025 with the second-highest game count of his career, after he hit 140 in 2017. But by any other measure, not only has he been as effective as ever, he’s also been prolific.
“I just need to play,” said Buxton. “My numbers will be there. I don’t care about my numbers this year. I just want to play. Post up every day, be there for my teammates, play the majority of my time in center field, not DHing. … For me, being able to post up, that’s my biggest thing. Because I haven’t been able to — they know I’m there, but for me I [haven’t] been there for my teammates. So this year is a little bit different.”
He’s also probably put himself in position to receive some postseason award consideration. While the American League Most Valuable Player is a two-horse race, Buxton seems likely to receive some down-ballot consideration, and he also would seem to be a serious contender for his first Silver Slugger award.
“He’s in the process of capping off a pretty historic year,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “My guess is he’s going to get a whole bunch of MVP votes and Silver Slugger votes. We’ve been able to watch Buck for a long time. We know what he does and how pretty incredible it is to watch. But to also have the rest of the league and the opposing teams get a chance to see him every day and take notice of his phenomenal contributions, that makes us feel good, too.”
Buxton’s performance backed six outstanding innings from Bailey Ober, who struck out five and walked one in his first scoreless outing of the season. Good feelings have been harder to come by for the Twins this year than they expected, but there were plenty on Thursday.
And it started with Buxton, who jumped all over a high fastball from Tyler Mahle to crank a leadoff homer for the second straight game. It was his 10th such shot of the year, which leads the American League, and inches him closer to the Twins’ record of 11, set by Jacque Jones in 2002.
Ober made the lead stand up through his sixth inning, and in the eighth, Buxton put the exclamation point on the game. Singles by Edouard Julien and Christian Vázquez against veteran reliever Chris Martin brought up Buxton with no outs, and, once again, he was ready to pounce.
“I think, ‘You ain’t going to throw me a [first-pitch] strike,’” Buxton said. “That’s how I think. ‘You ain’t going to throw me a strike. You throw me a strike, that’s what’s going to happen.’ That’s my mentality.”
