LOS ANGELES – Byron Buxton, the Minnesota Twins centerfielder, wasn’t demanding a recount Tuesday night.
He said the MVP trophy at the All-Star Game went to the right man, New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton. In fact, Buxton looked grateful to be answering questions in front of his locker rather than at a big news conference after the American League beat the National League 3-2 at Dodger Stadium.
“I like to be in the background,’’ he said.
Now that could be tougher to do – even for a man playing in a small market like Minneapolis – after Buxton delivered the game-winning hit in front of a sellout crowd of 52,518 and a national TV audience.
With the American League trailing the National League 2-0 in the top of the fourth, Stanton blasted a two-run homer. Up next, Buxton belted a solo homer off the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin.
It was a 92 mph fastball on a 2-1 count that Buxton launched 425 feet to left. The analytics of the swing will have to wait.
“See ball, hit ball,’’ said Buxton, 28, after making his All-Star debut.
He was more keen to talk about the 83 mph splitter that Stanton belted 457 feet to left center.
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“It kind of fired me up a little bit,’’ said Buxton, in his eighth year in the majors. “He went up there and put a good swing on the ball and it was like, now you go up there and put a good swing on the ball. And it kind of just simplified it for me by not…
