Turns out Twins center fielder Byron Buxton had a very good reason for leaving Tuesday’s American League wild-card game at Yankee Stadium after three innings.

According to a person with direct knowledge, team trainers initially told Buxton he could have a cracked rib after being removed due to what the Twins announced as “upper back tightness.” Buxton suffered the rib pain making yet another highlight catch, crashing into the outfield wall to rob Todd Frazier of extra bases in the second inning of an 8-4 loss to the New York Yankees.

Subsequent tests and scans of Buxton’s torso “revealed no fractures,” the Twins announced Saturday. Buxton should be able to go through his normal offseason training program after a period of recovery. Related Articles Twins clinch playoff berth with victory over Cubs

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Buxton, who played a career-high 140 games during the regular season despite injuries to his groin and left hand, stayed in Tuesday’s game for another eight batters defensively. He also hustled down the line to beat out a routine double-play grounder to shortstop with one out in the third inning, which allowed the tying run to score.

Buxton then stole second base but appeared to be in some discomfort after sliding in safely.

Twins manager Paul Molitor said after the game team trainers told him Buxton’s back “locked up” on the swing that resulted in the grounder against Yankees right-hander David Robertson in the third inning.

“He just physically wasn’t able to go,” Molitor said.

After the game, as he conducted clubhouse interviews for at least 10 minutes while bracing his upper back against a sidewall, Buxton admitted he was still in some pain.

“It’s still pretty hard for me to breathe right now,” he said. “It was very tough not being able to go out there and compete every pitch in such a big game.”

Buxton was asked if he had any regrets about throwing himself into the wall in pursuit of a single out in a winner-take-all game.

“Once I picked up where the wall was and realized I was going to take a pretty good hit, I just put all my focus onto the ball and held onto the ball,” he said. “If you try to shield yourself, you’re going to be passive toward the ball and not as aggressive. I like to play this game aggressively and go out and have a lot of fun.”

At 23, Buxton led the Twins with 5.1 wins above replacement, according to Baseball-Reference.com, while ranking behind only second baseman Brian Dozier among Twins players under the Fangraphs.com WAR formula (3.5). Buxton also is a strong candidate to win the first Rawlings Gold Glove award of his career.

“If Buxton doesn’t win a Gold Glove,” Dozier said, “they should just get rid of it.”