Twins' vision of revival led by Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton could be near

The black wall beyond the berm in center field at Target Field is known as "the batter's eye."

Miguel Sano hit one into the batter's eyebrow.

In the third inning, Sano smashed a 95-mph fastball from Oakland's Sonny Gray into the restaurant above the black wall, which is called "Catch," and now serves rapidly-moving cowhide as well as other tapas.

Tuesday night, Sano and Byron Buxton reminded the hardy folks willing to brave a winter's night at the ballpark that their ceilings are as high and dazzling as the Sistine Chapel. Both hit upper-deck homers in the Twins' 9-1 victory over the A's.

Sano and Buxton have played in the same organization since the Twins drafted Buxton in 2012. They are friends, and Sano said he will host Buxton at his house in the Dominican Republic this winter, but they have yet to simultaneously produce an effective month in the big leagues. May of 2017 could be the first time that two of the most talented youngsters in baseball finally join forces when and where it matters.

The last week of April hinted at how their combined potential can translate into production. In five games, Sano hit three homers and drove in 11 runs, and Buxton ended a remarkable run of futility, reaching 11 times in 20 plate appearances after reaching eight times in his previous 17 games.

The Twins won four of five on the trip, providing a glimpse of what various Twins bosses have been envisioning since Buxton and Sano first played together, in 2013 at Class A Fort Myers.

For the last year there have been concerns in the organization that Sano hadn't taken his career seriously enough after his impressive debut in 2015. Those concerns have been assuaged. He is again the Twins' most important hitter, a player who projects to be an MVP candidate if his team regains relevance.

Tuesday, Sano hit his fourth homer in five games. His blast was measured at 466 feet.

"I got a little jammed," Sano said. "I can hit one 500 feet."

His manager doesn't doubt that.

"There is a very small percentage of people who can even dream of hitting a ball like that," Paul Molitor said. "And he has a chance to do it every night."

In the seventh, Buxton hit his first homer of the season, drove in a run with a groundout, and had a hard liner to left caught.

The Sunday before the road trip, Buxton was taken out of the lineup and spent the morning working on the field with Molitor, hitting coach James Rowson and unofficial godfather Torii Hunter. "I went back to my slump-buster tips," he said. "It's a list of things Torii has said, and I remember, that I can go to to get back to my base."

"I kept telling him, you're going to have an at-bat where you're going to feel it," Molitor said. "You're going to let it get deep and you're going to put a good swing on the ball. I think he had that first hard-hit ball to right-center in Texas, and you could see all of a sudden he had that extra 'click,' where instead of panicking and rushing it was more deliberate. It's been a little, short stretch here, but the at-bats have been tremendously different and we all know that's what he's capable of."

Molitor worked with Sano and Buxton extensively in the minors before becoming the Twins' manager. For years, hard-to-impress Twins figures such as Molitor and Tom Kelly have been projecting greatness for Sano and Buxton.

Sano's vastly improved fielding and return to professionalism at the plate, combined with Buxton's adaptability under pressure, indicates a newfound readiness to make this team theirs.

"In the offseason I changed some things and worked really hard and this is the moment I've been waiting for," Sano said.

May could be the month that the Twins' wait for Sano and Buxton to become a damaging duo ends.

Jim Souhan's podcast can be heard at MalePatternPodcasts.com. On Twitter: @SouhanStrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com