Derek Shelton Details Byron Buxton Injury as Twins Get Shut Out by Royals

The Twins ran into an old friend at the worst possible time.

Randy Dobnak, who spent years in their organization before finding his way back to the majors with Kansas City, held Minnesota to four hits over seven scoreless innings at Target Field, and the Royals won 4-0.

Joe Ryan took the loss after giving up four runs on eight hits across six innings, with Tyler Tolbert homering in the third and Kansas City adding a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth.

Kendry Rojas gave the Twins three scoreless innings of relief, but the lineup never got anything started against a pitcher making just his third start of the season.

On Wednesday, the Twins placed Byron Buxton on the 10-day injured list with a right hip impingement and recalled Tristan Gray from St. Paul.

Manager Derek Shelton tied the move back to a specific moment from Tuesday night's win.

"It's just a re-aggravation of the hip. In the second at-bat, he felt it," Shelton said.

Buxton had been the engine of the offense, hitting .263 with 25 home runs across 82 games, and this is his second trip to the injured list this month after he was activated on July 20.

An offense that just got shut out at home cannot feel good about losing its center fielder again, and the timing complicates every conversation the front office is having this week.

Minnesota sits at 54-55, three games back in the American League Central and 1.5 games out of the final wild card spot.

That is close enough to keep hope alive and shaky enough to make everyone nervous, which is the hardest place to be with the deadline arriving Monday evening.

Teams in this spot always talk themselves into one side or the other by the weekend, and whichever way Minnesota leans will shape this roster well past this season.

Ryan and the Twins have reportedly not been looking at trades, per Jim Bowden and his season shows why other clubs would call, since he is 6-7 with a 3.52 ERA and 135 strikeouts even after a stretch that included his worst start of the year in Cleveland.

One year after the front office tore the roster down at the deadline, the same questions are back, just with different names attached.

Wednesday actually made the case for caution rather than panic.

This roster with a healthy Buxton has shown it can hang in the race, and adding an arm is a much easier sell than moving Ryan while the team sits this close to a playoff spot.

The Royals and Twins wrap up the series Thursday afternoon, and with the record sitting a game under .500, the next few days will shape which direction the front office leans before Monday.

Nobody wants to make a franchise-level decision based on one bad Wednesday, but the calendar is not giving Minnesota any extra time to find a clearer answer.