Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said Justin Morneau was not available today, even as a pinch hitter, as Morneau’s streak of 319 consecutive games played came to an end.

Gardenhire continued to describe Morneau’s injury as general soreness.

“He plans on being in there everyday, but he knew when he came in today that he was not feeling very good,” Gardenhire said. “He was going to try to get loose, and we walked over and checked him, and it was not working out.

“We saw that at the end of last year, when he played through everything, the bad back — the whole package, and we don’t want to get into those things, not in the middle part of the year.”

Ryan Howard’s streak of 343 consecutive games played also ended today. He has been hospitalized with flu symptoms.

(*) Jason Kubel left the game with flu symptoms. Gardenhire said Kubel also had lost Miguel Tejada’s first-inning double in the roof.

(*) Asked if his team needed reinforcements before resuming play in a National League ballpark, Tuesday in Milwaukee, Gardenhire said, “There’s really not a lot of answers right now. Nicky [Punto’s] day-to-day, and Morneau should be fine, I would hope. And there’s not a lot of answers right now. There’s not people to come up and help us, so we have to let these guys get well.”

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