Twins’ Byron Buxton keeps it simple and heats up at the plate

SEATTLE – Ask Byron Buxton about how he hit himself into a hot streak after a disappointing first two months of the season offensively, and he makes it sound so simple.

“See ball, hit ball” is the mantra he keeps repeating.

“To finally find the thing that clicks is one less thing you really put in your head to worry about,” Buxton said. “You go to the cage and it’s like all right, get that feeling. It’s not, all right, let’s do this, this, this and this. It ain’t none of that anymore. I know what I want to feel.”

From June 7 through Thursday, Buxton batted .355 with four homers, four doubles, one triple, 14 RBI and 14 RBI in 17 games.

“Go in there 15 minutes and it’s like I’m locked in,” Buxton said of his pregame batting cage session. “Normally it wouldn’t take me freakin’ 10 minutes, but 10-15 and I’m good. The first three months, I guarantee you I was in there for about an hour just trying to figure stuff out. You actually clogged yourself a little bit more trying to figure that stuff out.”

Health certainly is part of the equation. Buxton didn’t want to make excuses for his offensive production in April and May, but he’s extending better on his front leg and reaching more pitches, allowing him to cut down on his strikeouts this month.

He is running as well as he has in years, beating out groundballs for infield singles and showing elite speed on the basepaths.

“It definitely feels good to be in a good position, feel that confidence and be the person that you know you should be,” Buxton said.

What does Buxton do with all the extra time he’s not hitting in the cage?

“I actually get to drink a little bit more coffee,” he said.

Major League Baseball doesn’t ask managers for their input on All-Star reserves, but Rocco Baldelli said it would be “a travesty” for the Twins to only have one player on the American League roster.

One deserving selection, Baldelli says, is utilityman Willi Castro. The only Twins player to appear in all 81 games, entering Friday, Castro is batting .277 with 21 doubles, seven homers, 27 RBI and 49 runs while posting a .359 on-base percentage. He ranked fifth in the American League in doubles and 10th in runs.

“I think he’s already made a case,” Baldelli said of Castro. “I think he’s already firmly in that conversation. I don’t know how much more clear it can be that he’s having an all-star season.”

When Kody Funderburk initially saw the Twins’ 2024 schedule, he made note of their June trip to play the Diamondbacks.

“I circled it and I hadn’t even been in the big leagues yet,” said Funderburk, who grew up about 35 minutes outside of downtown Phoenix in Queen Creek, Ariz. “I was like, ‘I have to somehow find my way to the big leagues and somehow stay for that series.’ ”

Funderburk was recalled to the big leagues three days before the Twins traveled to Arizona, spending an off day at home before their three-game series at Chase Field. He pitched two innings in the series finale Thursday.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play on that field,” he said. “My family that is still there got to go to all the games. Each night, I had numerous friends, family, old teammates, old high school friends that came out. Some people that I haven’t seen in seven, eight, probably close to 10 years now. It was really cool.”

• Riley Thompson took a no-hitter into the seventh inning for Iowa, which scored six runs (five unearned) off Ronny Henriquez in the eighth inning and beat the Saints 8-1 in Des Moines.

• Twins shortstop Carlos Correa, true to his word, was in the Twins lineup Friday, one day after he was hit by a pitch on his right wrist. “I just want to be out there with the boys and keep playing good baseball,” he said. “It’s always special when I get to take the field. I never take it for granted.”