Twins pitcher Kevin Slowey left today’s start in the fourth inning with an apparent injury. The Angels had a 3-0 lead at the time, and Slowey had just retired Torii Hunter on a grounder to third base.

Manager Ron Gardenhire and trainer Rick McWane went to the mound to check on Slowey, and Gardenhire motioned for righthanded reliever Brian Bass. Updates to come.

UPDATE: Slowey was diagnosed with a right biceps strain and will be re-evaluated Friday. Francisco Liriano would be a possible choice to take Slowey’s place in the rotation if the injury proves serious. Liriano is scheduled to start tonight for Class A Fort Myers.

POSTGAME UPDATE: Gardenhire mentioned possibly using Tuesday’s off day to skip Slowey’s next start and keep everyone on schedule. The next two days will tell the Twins a lot about the injury, and whether Slowey needs to go on the DL. Right now, no MRI is scheduled. Gardenhire ruled out bringing up Liriano to fill Slowey’s spot. “We will not adjust his schedule because of something that happens up here. Liriano is on schedule, and he’s going to do what we set out to do, and we will not make any adjustments. Only when Liriano’s ready, and that’s a couple of starts, at least.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.