Buxton leaves teammates in awe with breathtaking game-ending catch

MINNEAPOLIS -- A comfortable lead had become very uncomfortable for the Twins on Tuesday night. A nice, feel-good win was threatening to become yet another gut-punch loss. And then in 4.4 seconds, Byron Buxton restored all of the good vibes.

Buxton had his pitcher’s back, just like he always does.

Buxton’s sensational diving catch on Andrew Benintendi’s line drive to deep right-center secured a 4-2 Twins victory against the White Sox. It provided Buxton, who has made a career of spectacular moments, with maybe the No. 1 play of his career, according to no less of an authority than Buxton himself.

The catch stymied a dangerous Chicago rally, preventing the tying runs from scoring and the go-ahead run from getting into scoring position. It let Jhoan Duran off the hook for what would’ve been a very painful blown save, and ended a three-game Twins losing streak. It made a winner of starter Bailey Ober, who tossed six very effective innings and made a point to seek out Buxton in the clubhouse for a hug.

“I don't think I’ve ended a game with a catch like [that], especially with everything that's going on, us battling, getting through some tough series, trying to get things to fall for us,” Buxton said. “To be able to have something fall our way, it was fun.”

With the Twins leading, 4-1, Lenyn Sosa opened the ninth against Duran with an infield single. Duran walked the next two batters, and a very real sense of unease settled on Target Field. Duran struck out Joshua Palacios, and Nick Maton drove in a run with a groundout. That brought up Benintendi, who worked a 2-2 count.

With Buxton shaded to left-center, Benintendi sent a hard liner to right-center, 101 mph off the bat. Buxton took off instantly, bolting toward right-center. With the ball tailing away from him, he covered 78 feet in 4.4 seconds. Buxton closed, leapt, corralled the ball, and hit the warning track hard.

Duran exulted. Buxton celebrated with right fielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr., who had the best view of the play of anyone. Ober, after watching the catch on a live monitor, ran to see it again on a delayed feed.

“It was slow-mo,” said Keirsey. “As I’m running, I see him and he just jumps in the air and it’s like slow motion. It was one of the most incredible catches I’ve ever seen.”

Perhaps the greatest tribute to Buxton is that no one on the other side was all that surprised that he made the play.

“When I hit it, with the jump he got, I knew he was going to catch it,” Benintendi said. “Just the way he was tracking it, yeah, I thought he had it the whole way.”

It wasn’t that simple, of course. At some point Buxton had to change from go-get-it mode to actually-catch-it mode. At the same time, he had to assess how much room he had before he hit the wall. He put all the pieces together and added another jaw-dropping play to his lengthy legacy.

“I knew off the jump I had to get on my horses,” he said. “The biggest thing is making sure I had a good line to the ball because the ball didn't get up too high for me to run up under it. Being able to [have] the right instincts and make the first step was a big key to that.”

Too many times this year already, the Twins have seen leads get away late. It was not to be the case this time, with Buxton turning nervous anxiety into pure joy.

“I saw the ball and saw it turning to the right-center field,” Duran said. “I saw Byron right in center field. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ He’s really fast and he made that catch. He told me in the past day or earlier, ‘Hey, I got you.’ Now, I know what it means.”