Byron Buxton hit for the cycle for the first time in his career, and the Minnesota Twins pulled away for a 12-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Buxton finished 5-for-5 with two singles, a double, a triple, a home run and two RBIs for Minnesota. He became the first player to hit for the cycle in the history of Target Field and the 12th player to hit for the cycle in Twins history. Notably, he did it all on his own bobblehead promotional giveaway day.
Willi Castro finished 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs for the Twins, who improved to 6-2 on their homestand. Kody Clemens finished 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs.
Jack Suwinski hit a solo homer for Pittsburgh, which will try to avoid a sweep on Sunday.
Twins rookie right-hander Travis Adams (1-0) earned his first career win with four innings of relief. He allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits.
Pirates right-hander Mike Burrows (1-3) gave up six runs on five hits in 1 1/3 innings.
The Twins erupted for six runs in the bottom of the second.
Clemens started the scoring with a three-run shot to right.
Buxton, who hit an infield single in the first inning, tripled to center in the at-bat after Clemens’ homer and scored on a throwing error moments later. Trevor Larnach followed with a walk, and Ryan Jeffers and Brooks Lee capped the outburst with back-to-back, RBI hits.
The Twins added three more runs in the third to increase their lead to 9-0.
Buxton ripped a ground-rule double to drive in the first run of the inning. Castro followed with an RBI single to center, and Larnach hit a sacrifice fly to right.
The Pirates got on the scoreboard with a run in the fourth. Andrew McCutchen drew a walk, advanced to second on a single by Bryan Reynolds and scored on a throwing error by Royce Lewis.
Suwinski slammed a solo shot to cut the Pirates’ deficit to 9-2 in the fifth.
Wallner made it 10-2 for the Twins with a solo home run in the sixth.
The back-and-forth scoring continued as Joey Bart hit an RBI single for the Pirates in the seventh.
Buxton and Castro belted back-to-back, solo home runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it 12-3. Teammates jumped to the top step of the dugout to celebrate Buxton’s blast over the wall in center, which finished off his milestone afternoon.
Nick Gonzales hit an RBI single in the eighth to drive in the Pirates’ fourth run.
–Field Level Media
