Byron Buxton does a lot of things well. Hitting home runs is one of them.
The Minnesota Twins’ outfielder put his power on display Wednesday, launching one of the longest home runs of the MLB season in his team’s 6-2 victory over the Rangers.
With two men on and a 2-2 count, Buxton was offered a 90 mph slider from Texas starter Jack Leiter on the outside edge of the plate. Buxton turned on it and launched the ball deep over the left-center-field wall.
Broadcast cameras lost track of the ball as it landed in the stands high above the outfield bullpen.
By the time it landed, Buxton’s blast had traveled an estimated 479 feet. The home run was second in distance this MLB season, behind only Mike Trout’s 484-foot blast for the Los Angeles Angels against the San Francisco Giants on April 19.
Buxton’s blast eclipsed a headline-grabbing, 469-foot bomb from New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge on Tuesday. And it turned a 2-0 Twins deficit into a 3-2 Twins lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
Buxton is off to a strong start at the plate this season, with a .268/.327/.490 slash line entering Wednesday. His monstrous home run was his the 11th of the season in 51 games and pushed his RBI tally to 41.
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