Byron Buxton returns to roster for Game 4, pops out in pinch-hitting role

Alex Kirilloff's 0-for-9 postseason wasn't a fluke or a slump, Rocco Baldelli said Wednesday. It was evidence that Kirilloff's right shoulder, the one that kept the first baseman off the field for five weeks in August and September, has been bothering him again.

"It's just progressively been getting worse, to the point where he really can't swing," the Twins manager said. "He's battled through it, [but] it just got worse."

Coincidentally, Byron Buxton's sore right knee has been getting better. And so on Wednesday, the Twins received permission from MLB to swap them on the playoff roster.

"Right now, he's at a good enough spot where he can help us," Baldelli said, adding, "probably in smaller spurts."

Buxton, who hasn't played in the majors for the past 10 weeks due to a hamstring strain and then recurring pain in his surgically repaired knee, was not in the Twins' starting lineup for Game 4 but pinch hit in the eighth inning and popped out to first.

Kirilloff's condition had to be reviewed by MLB's medical staff to ensure the injury is genuine.

The switch had Donovan Solano playing first base in Wednesday's Game 4 of the ALDS against Houston at Target Field. Edouard Julien served as the designated hitter, Buxton's regular position this year when healthy, on Wednesday. Julien doubled and homered.

On Sunday, Baldelli noted that while the team was giving Buxton live-pitching batting practice, he hadn't yet tested his knee by running the bases, let alone roam the outfield catching fly balls. The manager said, "Buck has ... run enough for him to give me the double thumbs-up, that he's ready to run if we need him to."

As for Kirilloff, Baldelli said, the shoulder injury "is not something that ever went away. Everyone was very aware of what he was dealing with. … Sometimes you hit a breaking point where you just can't physically do the job anymore, and these last couple of days were that point for A.K."

You may notice Royce Lewis' smooth swing, the big-moment home runs, the speed on the bases. But kids? They notice something else.

He's got big, black arrows on his face, more or less pointing at his nose.

"I get mail and messages from kids, copying my look," Lewis said, meaning the eyeblack he applies to his cheeks before every game. "Even [Twins executive] Derek Falvey's son was wearing the arrows. So I was like, I should keep doing that. When you're having an effect on kids, that means something."

Eyeblack is intended to reduce the glare from sunlight or bright lights, but that's not why Lewis wears it.

"Personally, I don't think it helps out a ton. It's all for a look," the rookie infielder admitted. "It's part of the baseball outfit. When you wear a suit and tie, you don't forget the tie. That's what eyeblack is for me — I don't want to forget the tie."

Lewis, who said he's been wearing eyeblack in a variety of styles since middle school, is following in a long tradition of baseball eyeblack wearers, and named Fernando Tatis Jr., Francisco Lindor and Ronald Acuña Jr. as some of his favorite looks, not to mention the unique full face paint look that a flamboyant Bryce Harper sported when he was younger.

"If you see kids wearing it, and you ask if they wear it for glare, they would tell you it's just for swag. That's exactly what a lot of guys up here do," he said. "You've got to have fun playing this game, and when you do that, players tend to play better, too. All those guys have all that kind of flair and that swag. They play better because they have that. That's how I genuinely feel."

Gary Gaetti threw out the ceremonial first pitch Wednesday, shortly before Lewis tied him for second-most postseason home runs in Twins history. Gaetti and Lewis both have four, one fewer than Kirby Puckett.

Joe Ryan took the mound to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" for Game 4, rather than his usual "Fire on the Mountain" by the Grateful Dead. Naturally, he had given the choice some thought. "It was my debut song, and it's pretty good," Ryan said. "The whole 'Experience' name comes from Jimi, so it works well."