The. game musical chairs with Byron Buxton's health contiuned on Monday night at Target Field.
Buxton left the Minnesota Twins' 8-3 win over the Royals in the fifth inning, with the cause of his injury not being immedietly apparent. He struck out but never emerged from the dugout after the half inning was over, with Maneul Margot instead taking centerfield.
It's not the first time Buxton has needed to exit a game early, although none of his injuries have resulted in the sort of time Twins fans are used to seeing him miss. Still, given his checkered injury history -- and the context of what the IL looks like right now -- watching Buxton leave Monday's game early was uneccessary anxiety on an otherwise amazing night.
Twins announce latest Byron Buxton injury update after win over Royals
Not long after he left the game, the Twins announced that Buxton had experienced right hip discomfort. That's about as vague as it gets, but is par for the course when it comes to Minnesota trying to beat around the bush of letting fans know whether an injury is serious or not.
Byron Buxton left the game with right hip discomfort, the Twins announced.
— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) August 13, 2024
Skirting the issue has been an unfortunate theme for the Twins, which has a way of causing anxiety among fans. Far too many times has an injury been downplayed only for it to turn into something that requires a stint on the IL.
For the most part, Buxton has avoided all of that which is impressive given how often it felt he was on the wrong side of an injury break. All of that bad luck has bene saved for the rest of the clubhouse, though.
Joe Ryan, Brooks Lee, and Carlos Correa are all on the IL, while Brock Stewart has been lost for the remainder of the season. Justin Topa suffered a setback and was pulled off his rehab assignment, while Jose Miranda hasn't looked the same since returning from an injury he suffered before the All-Star Break.
Even Buxton has missed time, even if it hasn't been siginficant. Just the other week he needed to exit a game after crashing into the outfield wall and it was up-in-the-air as to whether or not he'd be able to play in the series against Cleveland over the weekend.
Minnesota is somehow only 3.5 games out of first place in the AL Central despite all of the injury woes. The last thing the team can afford is to add Buxton to the heap that has already formed, and hopefully this doesn't end up being something that takes him out of action for too long.
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