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ewen21 -> RE: Players and prospects III (8/13/2016 6:10:36 PM)
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Byron Buxton didn't get off to a good start this season in Minnesota. But putting in time around familiar faces and surroundings has helped him find himself again.
"I struggled with pretty much everything," he said. "It wasn't one thing that stood out and it showed. I just had to come back down here and get the pressure off my shoulder, relax and get my confidence back."
The 22-year-old outfielder went yard while collecting a season-high three hits and driving in two runs in Triple-A Rochester's 9-8 win over Indianapolis on Wednesday at Frontier Field. Buxton, who fell a triple shy of the cycle, has amassed 17 hits over his past 10 games.
"I'm just trying to hit as much as I can," he said. "I've been trying to drop the ball the other way. It took a little longer to come for me and I had a little trouble with that, but things just fell in place for me tonight."
Buxton didn't have any opposite-field base hits on Wednesday, but two of his hits -- including the homer -- went to center field, which indicated to him that his approach is paying off.
"I was pulling a bit and rolling over on some pitches I could hit before," the 2012 first-rounder said. "But I worked on some stuff before the game and I was able to stay through the ball tonight."
Buxton led off the bottom of the first inning with a double to left off Indians starter Kelvin Marte. He connected on the next pitch he saw from the southpaw for a two-run shot in the second. It marked Buxton's fourth long ball of the season and his second in as many games.
That shot was the Red Wings' third homer of the game after Tommy Field and No. 10 Twins prospect Adam Walker went back-to-back in the first.
"It's amazing," Buxton said. "All of us got our work in. We worked on stuff we struggled with the night before and everything just clicked for us today. BP was good and we just went out there and had fun."
All nine Rochester batters recorded at least a hit, and Buxton said he finds that success only adds to the bond they've already established over the years.
"It's very fun," he said. "We all know each other and we help each other out. We have great team chemistry. We don't even call us a team, we call us a family because of how close we are. We battle every day and we play for each other. That brings us more and more together."
That helped the Georgia native get through his early rough patch with Minnesota. Buxton batted .156 over 17 games with the Twins and was sent down on April 25.
"I just really tried to take away the things I did well and put them on one side and things I did bad on the other," he said. "I'm not quite there yet, but so far, it's going pretty good."
While Buxton was happy with his defense and understanding of the game in the Majors, he noted that he felt a lot of stress when the season opened.
"It wasn't hitting me too hard until this past year," Buxton said. "I put too much pressure on myself to go out there to try to do this and do that. That's not what I'm capable of. I needed to stay within myself. I've been doing that while I'm [with Rochester] and I'm still learning and having fun out there."
Jason Wheeler (3-1) allowed two runs on five hits and one walk while fanning three over six innings to pick up the win. David Martinez allowed one run in the seventh and Alex Wimmers pitched a scoreless eighth. In the final frame, Ryan O'Rourke was tagged for five runs -- two earned -- but Minnesota's No. 9 prospect J.T. Chargois closed out the game after giving up a hit by inducing a groundout for his third save of the year.
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