WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tuesday was a rough day for the Twins. They lost a game to the Athletics, a game in the division standings to the White Sox, and their center fielder to a possible injury.

Carlos Cortes homered and Gage Jump struck out nine in 6 1/3 innings as the Athletics beat the Twins, 4-2, at Sutter Health Park.

Twins starter Taj Bradley (9-6) tied his career high with 11 strikeouts but gave up four runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out the side on nine pitches in the fifth for the first immaculate inning in Twins history.

The loss dropped Minnesota into third place in the American League Central, 5½ games behind first-lace Chicago, which will be in Minneapolis on Friday to begin a three-game series at Target Field.

Buxton left the game with two out in the seventh after trying to field a triple to the right-center gap by Henry Bolte. The all-star outfielder had a good angle on the ball, but when he bent to glove it, pulled up before he could bend far enough to stop the ball from going to the wall.

Buxton was clearly in pain, prompting assistant athletic trainer Jason Kirkman and manager Derek Shelton to trot out to the outfield. After a quick conversation, Buxton walked off the field under his own power.

“He’s been dealing with the hip issue, which we know, and I think it kind of caught when he went to stop on the ball that got hit in the gap,” manager Derek Shelton told reporters in Sacramento. “Once I got out there, he had already talked to Jason a little bit and just felt with where he was at, I made the decision like, ‘OK, let’s get him off the field.’ We just need to make sure that we get a look at it.”

Buxton’s hip has been an issue for the past few months. He has twice landed on the injured list because of it, most recently coming off the IL on Aug. 13.

He first went on the injured list on July 7-20. After aggravating the hip again, he was placed on the injured list nine days later and received an injection to help with the issue. But it’s been clear that he is not at 100 percent and on Sunday, when asked how he felt physically, he said “comes and goes. Good days and bad days.”

“It’s not a time of the year to kind of be worried about that for me,” Buxton said Sunday. “Just one of those where (we) take it one day at a time, for sure.”

In the immediate aftermath of the injury, Shelton told reporters that they would “wait and see.” At the time he met with the media postgame, Shelton had yet to connect with Buxton after his departure.

The plan was for Buxton to take Wednesday’s series finale off, anyway, Shelton said, so the center fielder could have two days of rest before the Twins begin a stretch of 14 games against division foes.

The drumbeat has gotten increasingly louder in recent days for top prospect Walker Jenkins, a center fielder who is knocking on the door at Triple-A, to be called up. Jenkins is slashing .406/.488/.768 with a 1.256 OPS in the month of August and seven home runs in 17 games.

Jump (6-8) pitched into the seventh for the first time since June 18 against the Angels, when he fanned seven and allowed one hit in seven innings.

Royce Lewis had two hits for the Twins, who were 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and stranded five overall.