Byron Buxton homers in return, but Reds' six-run seventh dooms Twins in loss

Buxton hit his 17th homer of the season in the fifth inning of Friday's loss.

Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton (25) celebrates after hitting a solo home run against the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth inning at Target Field in Minneapolis on Sept. 13, 2024. / Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

It didn’t take long for Byron Buxton to remind the Twins what they were missing. 

Buxton hit a fifth-inning homer in his first game back from the injured list, but the Cincinnati Reds beat the Twins 8-4 Friday in front of 27,170 at Target Field in Minneapolis behind a six-run seventh inning.

Though the final score would indicate otherwise, it was a pitcher's duel between Julian Aguiar and Bailey Ober through six innings. The Reds (72-77) broke the 1-1 game open in the seventh, beginning Spencer Steer's leadoff triple off Ober and TJ Friedl's RBI bunt single that gave them a one-run lead.

Ty France followed up with an RBI double the next at-bat to make it a 3-1 Cincinnati advantage.

“I put the ball where I wanted to, so they executed it," Ober said. "The only thing in the seventh inning that I want back is the walk. I threw the ball where I needed to and they just put good swings on it. Sometimes the baseball finds its way to beat you, and that’s what happened that inning.” 

Ober got the next two outs, fanning Jake Fraley and Noelvi Martin, before Twins manager Rocco Baldelli turned to Jorge Alcala, who walked Jonathan India to load the bases and set the stage for Elly De La Cruz’s first career grand slam, a 398-foot shot to right-center field, that made it 7-1. 

The Twins (78-69) got three runs back in the bottom of the inning, getting an RBI single from Willi Castro and a two-run single from Brooks Lee to get within 7-4, but the Reds got one of those back on Friedl's RBI single off Michael Tonkin in the eighth inning, pushing it back to a four-run advantage.

The end result of the once pitcher's duel was eight combined earned runs for Ober and Aguiar. Ober gave up five runs off six hits while fanning six across 6 2/3 innings, falling to 12-7 on the season, while Aguiar gave up three runs off three hits while fanning four across 6 1/3 innings, improving to 2-0.

Buxton’s fifth-inning homer, a 393-foot shot to left-center field, knotted the game at 1-1.

“Buck, really nice to see him back in action," Baldelli said. "Whack one, that’ll certainly get him feeling good in one way or another. Already he comes in and really impacts us in a really nice way."

But overall, the Twins had more strikeouts (6) than hits (5) in the loss.

The Reds took a 1-0 lead on Friedl’s 347-foot solo homer in the second inning. Friedl, who was hitting just .213 entering Friday's game, was 3 for 4 with the homer, two runs scored and three RBIs.

The Twins and Reds meet for the second of their three-game series at 6:10 p.m. on Saturday. 

“We got to go out there and play hard and win games. The only way that we’re getting into the playoffs is if we go out there and handle our business the way we should," Ober said. "We need to go out there every game and pretend that we’re in the playoffs now and try to go out there and win every single game that we need to throughout the rest of the season."