The dousing that the Twins call a celebration envelops Byron Buxton after he hit for the cycle Saturday at Target Field. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Fans waited in lines that stretched around Target Field hours before Saturday’s first pitch just to claim a Byron Buxton bobblehead doll.

Many hours later, they saw one of the great individual performances in Twins history as well, when the All-Star Game-bound center fielder hit for the rare cycle in a 12-4 victory over Pittsburgh.

Buxton went 5-for-5 on a smoky afternoon at the ballpark. Having hit a single, triple and double in the first three innings as the Twins took a 9-0 lead, he capped his cycle with a towering 427-foot home run to center in the seventh inning.

All that and a bobblehead, too?

“It’s special,” Buxton said. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous before the game started, just knowing it was bobblehead day. Obviously, you want to come out and do something good. So to be able to come out on bobblehead day and have a day like this is something I won’t forget.”

Buxton is the 12th player in Twins history to hit for the cycle and the first player to hit for the cycle in Target Field in its 16 seasons. He’s the first Twins player to hit for the cycle since Jorge Polanco on April 5, 2019, at Philadelphia, and the first to do it at home since Michael Cuddyer on May 22, 2009, against Milwaukee at the Metrodome.

Manager Rocco Baldelli in recent days has called Buxton’s first half of the season before next week’s All-Star break the best he’s ever seen.

Saturday probably topped them all, just two days before Buxton competes in the All-Star Home Run Derby, three days before the big game itself, held back home in Georgia.

“That was one of the great individual performances I’ve ever seen,” Baldelli said. “He’s playing like this every day, where you think almost anything’s possible. It’s like when one of those pitchers who take the mound every outing and you’re like ‘This guy might throw a no-hitter every game.’ That’s the way Buck‘s playing as a position player: Dialed in, affecting every aspect of the game and, like today, taking over games, too.

“Incredible. Anyone that was here today will never forget it.”

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Buxton singled in the first inning, laced a triple — with a facefirst slide into third — as part of a six-run second inning, doubled and scored after his deep drive bounced over the wall in the third and singled again in the fifth. He came to the plate again in the seventh inning, his team leading 10-3. With two outs, on an 0-2 count, he hit a 79-mph curveball deep.

“I wasn’t really focused on the count,” Baldelli said. “I’m just enjoying him and everything he’s doing. It’s hard to think that any situation is one he can’t find his way out of or do something pretty spectacular with.”

Buxton celebrated each hit with an arm-pumping “Buck Truck” tribute that honors his truck-driving father, Felton, and shared with the 26,496 fans.

Baldelli’s coaches reminded him Buxton was a home run away from the cycle, just in case Baldelli was inclined to remove him from the game with the outcome long decided.

“One of the hardest things to do in our game is try to hit a home run and then proceed to hit a home run,” Baldelli said. “Maybe, if you’re lucky and play a long time and you’re a great player, only maybe do you get a couple opportunities to complete a cycle. And do it by hitting a home run when you need a home run?

“I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. I wouldn’t doubt if I never see it again. Unless he does it tomorrow.”

Buxton, 31, credited his teammates’ support for Saturday’s game.

“They kept me going, `Buck, you’re going to do it today,’ ” he said. “They told me that. It was just one of those things where you have to believe in yourself that you’re going to do it. I think all those guys believe in me more than I believe in myself.”

BOXSCORE: Twins 12, Pittsburgh 4

MLB standings

One of his coaches asked Buxton afterward if he’d approached such a feat before.

“I said, `Man, I was a put-it-on-the-ground-and-run guy,” Buxton said. “It’s one of those things where it takes a little bit of experience to figure out who you are. I’m to the point where I know who I am. It’s about going out there and making the right adjustments, not overthinking it.”

Baldelli carried home the team’s sixth victory in eight games of a nine-game homestand that ends Sunday, the last game before All-Star break.

He’s also taking home a Byron Buxton bobblehead.

“Oh yeah, I got two of them,” Baldelli said. “One for my daughter and one for me.”