Buxton sets career high for homers and Ryan throws 7 shutout innings as Twins beat Padres 7-2

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Byron Buxton set a career best with his 29th home run and Joe Ryan pitched seven scoreless innings as the Minnesota Twins beat the San Diego Padres 7-2 on Sunday.

Buxton and Royce Lewis each had two hits for the Twins, who took two of three games in the series. San Diego dropped two games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

Ryan (13-7) scattered five hits and struck out eight. He threw a season-high 104 pitches while bouncing back from a pair of rough outings.

The All-Star right-hander allowed 11 earned runs in nine innings over his previous two starts.

San Diego dropped to 2-5 in its past seven games. Freddy Fermin and Bryce Johnson had RBIs in the ninth.

Buxton sent a changeup from Kyle Hart (3-3) three rows deep into the left-field seats for a two-run shot that gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead in the third. It was his fourth homer in four games, surpassing his previous season best of 28 home runs in 2022.

Recalled from Triple-A El Paso earlier in the day, Hart permitted three runs in 1 1/3 innings of relief as the Padres went with a bullpen game. He hit Luke Keaschall with a pitch to start the Minnesota fourth, and he scored on a single by James Outman.

Keaschall and Lewis had RBI singles in a three-run fifth to make it 6-0.

Down 2-0, San Diego had runners on first and second with no outs in the fourth, but Ryan struck out Ramón Laureano and Gavin Sheets before Jake Cronenworth flied out.

The Twins won their first series since Aug. 8-10 against Kansas City. Minnesota is 5-12 since then.

Padres: RHP Dylan Cease (6-11, 4.82 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday’s home game against Baltimore. RHP Kyle Bradish (0-1, 3.00) is the scheduled Orioles starter.

Twins: RHP Bailey Ober (4-7, 5.14 ERA) faces White Sox RHP Aaron Civale (3-9, 5.26) on Monday in the opener of a four-game series at home.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

San Diego Padres relief pitcher Kyle Hart delivers during the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Twins' Brooks Lee (2) slides past San Diego Padres catcher Freddy Fermin (54) to score off a sacrifice fly hit by Minnesota Twins' Ryan Jeffers (27) during the fifth inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

San Diego Padres relief pitcher Kyle Hart walks back to the dugout after completing the bottom of the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan (41) delivers during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Twins' Byron Buxton (25) runs the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.

“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.

It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.

Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.

While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.

NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.

The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)