Twins' Josh Donaldson returns to lineup, immediately produces

When Josh Donaldson left a July 31 game with what was described at the time as a tight right calf, he initially thought that he wouldn't miss many games.

"At the beginning, the first five or six days when it happened, I didn't know how significant it was," Donaldson said. "I felt like I could be good in a couple of days, but the more we kept testing it out it was progressing, trending the wrong way for me to go out there and play in games.

"That's when we ended up getting the MRI and taking the week off."

Donaldson ended up missing 30 games before being activated from the injured list Wednesday in time to face the White Sox. Having missed significant time because of calf injuries in the past, Donaldson also realized during the early stages of his recovery to let history guide him.

"It was like, hey, you're going to have to pump the brakes here for a second," Donaldson said. "I know it's not ideal. It's not anything that I wanted or our organization wanted. But to get back to today, that was the experience those injuries in the past helped me with."

Now Donaldson is back to help a Twins ship that has been taking on water. They had lost six consecutive games before winning Tuesday and had fallen out of first place to 2½ games back in the AL Central. His bat will be a boost to the lineup, especially against lefthanders — he had hits in his first two at-bats and drove in two runs with a second-inning double off White Sox righthanded starter Reynaldo Lopez on Wednesday — and his defense will help a unit that already has been excellent this season.

After Byron Buxton returned from the IL on Tuesday, the Twins got another jolt to their lineup with Donaldson's return.

"Yeah, J.D., and I could say Buck, too, but when we face those lefties, being able to put those good, dangerous guys out there to face those lefthanded pitchers is always nice and always helpful," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Talking about J.D.'s at-bat, really the only thing we aim for when we send our guys out there is that they can just go out there and have the kind of at-bats they're capable of. J.D. has about a good of an at-bat as anyone in baseball."

Buxton was not in the starting lineup, which is part of Baldelli's plan to ease him back into playing regularly.

He's expected to be in the lineup Friday when the Twins open a four-game series against the Tigers.

Upon his return, he will try to correct one mistake he made while leaping at the wall Tuesday to snatch Edwin Encarnacion's potential homer.

The Twins are trying a couple of things to keep Buxton from forcefully crashing into fences and potentially harming himself. One, they have him playing more than a dozen feet deeper in center field, which hopefully will allow him to get to the wall quicker and reduce the chances of him smashing into fences at warp speed — something like mini-warp speed, perhaps.

The other is to have him leap off both feet to help him jump straight up instead of launching off one foot. But when he made his big catch Tuesday, he took off on one foot.

"Yeah, I'm still working on the two feet," Buxton said. "It's a lot tougher than I thought it would be."

But having Buxton healthy and back in the lineup energized the Twins, and they want him available as much as possible.

"It's exciting," said righthander Michael Pineda, Tuesday's starter after returning from a 60-game suspension. "Everybody know who's Byron Buxton. So when I check the lineup [Tuesday] and see Byron Buxton in center field, I say, 'Whoa, this is going to be good game.' We want to enjoy the game. We love seeing Buxton. He's one of the best [defenders] in the game."

• To make room for Donaldson, the Twins designated infielder Ildemaro Vargas for release or assignment. Vargas batted .227 in 10 games, but is handy around the infield, and the club would like to hold onto him.

• Righthander Jake Odorizzi, on the IL because of a chest contusion, threw in the bullpen as he works out the lingering discomfort after being hit with a 103-miles-per-hour line drive off the bat of Alex Gordon during a series in Kansas City a week and a half ago.

• Alex Avila was scratched from the starting lineup because of lower back tightness. Ryan Jeffers started at catcher instead.