Few victories over the Chicago White Sox have felt so unenthusiastic than the one the Minnesota Twins had on Wednesday afternoon.
Minnesota beat Chicago 3-1, winning its first series of the year against its AL Central rival and improving to 8-4 on the season. It was the cost paid in that win that has everyone in Twins Territory feeling uneasy.
Kyle Farmer exited the game in the fourth inning after taking a 92 MPH fastball from Lucas Giolito directly in his face. After the game, the team announced that Farmer somehow didn't break his jaw but underwent a procedure to realign his teeth and suture a laceration on his lower jaw.
Three innings later Twins fans had another scare when Byron Buxton was flipped into the air and landed on his neck after a collision with White Sox second baseman Lenyn Sosa. Buxton left the game and the Twins never got back to his spot in the batting order to present a situation where he needed to be replaced.
Rocco Baldelli said after the game that Buxton would not have returned. Buxton also commented on the collision, and on the notion that the play was somehow dirty by Sosa.
Byron Buxton comments on collision with Lenyn Sosa
Buxton initially seemed agitated when asked about the collision after the game, and offered up some honest comments on the situation.
"I don't know, literally have zero clue," Buxton said when asked about what caused the collision. " looking at the ball, next minute I'm on the ground. It is what it is."
Most fans had a reasoned approach to the bang-bang play, with some even pointing out that the position of the second base umpire might have played a role in blocking Buxton and Sosa's view of one another. One fan's tweets made the rounds on Twins Twitter for calling out the White Sox for being dirty and seemingly implying that Sosa was intentionally trying to cause an injury.
Buxton admitted he hadn't watched the replay, and that there was really only one direction for him to go, but didn't think Sosa deserves any blame for what happened.
"From what I'm hearing, there wasn't too much for me to do other than go straight," Buxton said before coming to Sosa's defense. "By no means do I fault anybody, he's going for the ball and I'm trying to get to the base. You know it's baseball, that's part of it."
Here's part of a postgame conversation with Byron Buxton.
— Alec Ausmus (@A_TwiceKSTP) April 12, 2023
"It was very strange." Buxton on the game as a whole.
The collision he had at second base, and the unfortunate hit by pitch to the face to Kyle Farmer. #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/ux1wpCmhZj
Between the Farmer injury and what happened to Buxton, in addition to Sonny Gray reportedly throwing up, the game was an absurd one. Buxton made sure to point out how weird the game was given everything that happened.
"It was very strange. Very, very strange. But like I said, it is what it is," Buxton said. "We got the win and that's most important, but definitely a strange game to play."