LOCAL SPORTS 7-14-25

All-Star center fielder Byron Buxton hit for the cycle on his bobblehead day, completing it with a solo home run in the seventh inning, and the Minnesota Twins routed the Pittsburgh Pirates 12-4 on Saturday.

Buxton hit a single in the first inning, a triple in the second and a double in the third.

He singled again in the fifth before stepping to the plate in the seventh for one more chance at the first cycle ever at Target Field, which opened in 2010.

Facing Pirates reliever Andrew Heaney, Buxton hit a solo homer 427 feet to center field to complete the cycle — and send Target Field into a frenzy. His timing was perfect, too: Saturday's giveaway at the stadium was a Buxton bobblehead of his “Buck Truck” home run celebration.

Buxton's homer came two days before the Home Run Derby, in which he'll participate in his home state of Georgia at Truist Park in Atlanta.

Spencer Horwitz had a bases-loaded RBI ground out in the ninth inning and the Pittsburgh Pirates ended an eight-game slide by beating the Minnesota Twins 2-1 Sunday.

Horwitz hit a sharp grounder that second baseman Brooks Lee dove to his right to stop. Looking to start a double play, Lee couldn’t cleanly get the ball out of his glove and had to settle for a force out at first allowing Hayes to score.

Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa and Harrison Bader each had two hits for Minnesota, which finished 6-3 on a nine-game homestand but failed to get back to .500 for the first time since June 17.

Both teams return to action Friday after the All-Star break: Pittsburgh is home to the Chicago White Sox; Minnesota is at Colorado.

All-Star Freddy Peralta pitched one-run ball through 6 2/3 innings, Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang homered and the Milwaukee Brewers extended their winning streak to seven games with an 8-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday. Peralta (11-4) carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Jacob Young, Washington's No. 9 hitter, slapped a hit through the infield between third and short. 

The Brewers climbed to a season-best 16 games above .500 at 56-40.

Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore -- the new, finally finalized co-owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves and winners in a four-year battle for control of that team and the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx -- spoke at the NBA 2K26 Summer League in Las Vegas on Friday. 

Rodriguez and Lore will make changes, as all new owners do.

They unveiled one on Friday: a new ticketing platform called Jump, which, among other things, will allow fans to bid on tickets when fans with better seats vacate early. Want courtside seats if they're vacated early? Click, bid and they could be yours for a sliver of face value.

There's talk about a new arena, as well as mending fences with former Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett, who has been largely estranged from the franchise in recent years, much to the dismay of longtime Minnesota fans.

Rodriguez and Lore said they want to fix that.