NFL
By Steve Rogers
Byron Buxton has been on a mission this year. He is out to prove lots of things this season. One he’s trying to prove he can stay healthier. Although he has had a few minor stints on the injured list, he has played in 61 games before the All-Star break. Over the last two weeks since Buxton returned to the lineup after a knee issue he has been back to his brand of business. Combining speed and power. He has now hit his team-leading 21st home run. This is the first time in Buxton’s seven-year career he has eclipsed the 20 home run mark.
Buxton is also out to prove that this is his team. He has certainly been carrying the load as this squads Captain. More so than that he’s become the heart and soul of this club. There’s just different energy with him in the dugout. It’s even more evident when he’s on the field. The vibe is so electric you can feel it in the stands at home games. Especially now that he seems to be running at full speed, on the bases, and in the field. A week ago he had zero triples, now he has two. He’s showing up at the ballpark with a smile on his face ready to put in work.
He has indeed been putting the work in over the last two off-seasons. Buxton has been working on adjusting his recklessness on defense and how to be “Safer” when chasing after fly balls diving and crashing into walls specifically. So far so good he still looks like the best center fielder in baseball. Able to track down seemingly any fly ball no matter how far he has to go. He makes the Impossible look almost effortless. He turns would-be extra-base hits into highlight-level outs. Let’s just say you have a runner on third and he does catch a deep fly, you still wanna think twice about sending that runner cause Buxton is throwing 99 mph from center field. That’s better than some of the best starting pitchers. Run-on him at your own risk.
Buxton by the numbers is building on his power game over the last few years. After the 2018 season, his slugging percentage has jumped significantly. Prior to 2018, his highest slugging was .430 in 2016. Since 2019 when he finished the year with a slg. percent of .513, it has only gone up from there. In 2020 it was .577. Last year was his highest ever at .647 crazy! Now so far through the month of June in 2022, he’s slugging an impressive .569. Continuing to stick with his 2022 stats he has 52 total hits. Of those 34 of them are for extra bases. He has 22 home runs which is more than double the amount of doubles he has 10. He only has two triples but both of those have been in the last week.
Buxton is showing he is ready and up for the challenge of putting the team on his back. More than that he is proving he is the guy you want coming up to bat with the game on the line. Time and time again he is coming up to bat in major key situations and is finding a way to come up with big-time clutch hitting including two walk-off home runs. The first was back on April 24 and is also the longest walk-off home run at a staggering 469ft. The other happened on July 1 against the Orioles. Now on Independence day last night, he again is a part of MLB history as he caught a ball on the warning track wheeled, and fired it back to the infield where Gio Urshella caught then ran down and tagged Yoan Moncada running back towards second base Urshella continued running and stepped on second for the third out, as Adam Engel had failed to properly tag up at second. Creating the very first 8-5 triple play in MLB history. For a guy trying to change his narrative of missing too much time due to injury it sure helps making history twice. Once on offense and once on defense not too shabby for Buck who is continuing to have his best and fullest season to date. The fans are already chanting MVP, if he keeps performing like this the voters will too.
