Twins, ignited by All-Star Byron Buxton, overwhelm Cubs

Jerry Zgoda, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jul 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins scored two runs in the second inning and six more in the eighth to beat the National League Central’s best, the Chicago Cubs, 8-1 Tuesday at Target Field.

Byron Buxton continued his All-Star summer by starting the party with a hit that became a run.

Buxton was coming fresh off a weekend when he was named to the American League All-Star team for a game to be played in his home state of Georgia — and accepted the chance to compete in Monday’s All-Star Home Run Derby beforehand.

All he did was open Tuesday’s scoring by hitting a leadoff double. Then he scored from second when designated hitter Ryan Jeffers stepped up and hit a double himself.

Jeffers scored to make it 2-0 on a Carlos Correa single.

That’s all the Twins needed against the first-place Cubs.

Yet they scored more. Lots more.

Designated hitter Jeffers, Willi Castro and Harrison Bader all hit homers — Jeffers and Castro back to back, at that — in a six-run bottom of the eighth inning to stretch the lead to 8-0.

Bader hit a two-run homer than brought home Royce Lewis for the inning’s eighth and final run.

Cubs pinch hitter Justin Turner got one back with a ninth-inning home run that made it 8-1.

The Twins set off left-field fireworks when they ended the game with a shortstop-to-second-to-first double play.

The Twins used a succession of pitchers that began with starter Simeon Woods Richardson going five scoreless innings. Danny Coulombe came on to get two outs and Brock Stewart one out before Cole Sands and Griffin Jax entered for an inning each, followed by Joey Wentz.

Jax got himself in and out of a jam in the eighth, when he walked the first two batters, then struck out the next two before Michael Busch lined out to right field to end the inning.

The Twins got Correa as far as second but no further when Bader — moved up in the order to bat sixth — struck out to the end the first inning.

Cubs starter Shota Imanaga, 5-2 with a 2.78 ERA, retired the Twins 1-2-3 the next two innings before the Twins got two runners on but nobody across in the fourth inning.

The Cubs put runners on first and third with two outs in the sixth, but Stewart struck out shortstop Dansby Swanson swinging to end the inning.

The Cubs on Tuesday began a six-game road trip before next week’s All-Star weekend and All-Star break. The Twins continued with their long homestand by winning for the third time in four games.

They hit the road after beating St. Louis, 11-0, on “Sunday Night Baseball.” It put them in first place in the National League Central division, 3 1/2 games ahead of second-place Milwaukee.

Tuesday’s game was the first and only time the Cubs and Twins play each other after they played at Wrigley Field in 2024. They play three games at Target Field before the Twins play three games against the Yankees in New York before reaching the break.