Last September, Juan Uribe’s line drive struck Twins righthander Kevin Slowey in the right wrist, knocking him out of Game No. 163.

On Friday, Slowey began feeling pain in the same area during his outing against Detroit.

“It’s something the I noticed. I told the trainers and, immediately, they said, `listen,we’re going to get this checked out.’ ” Slowey said. “The plan is to get it checked out on Monday and make a decision.

“It’s the same area as last year, obviously from blunt force trauma. I think they’ll look into where it’s related.’

“More than anything it’s concerning because it’s in my right wrist which is a significant area.”

Slowey said it affected how he gripped the ball and the pain when from dull to sharp.

So the Twins have placed Slowey on the 15-day DL and will call up righthander Anthony Swarzak, who will help out in the bullpen for a couple days before taking Slowey’s spot in the rotation.

BULLPEN WATCH

The Twins will stay with 11 pitchers for now. Columnist Patrick Reusse called up MLB rosters and noted that the Twins are the only team to have an 11-man staff.

Brian Duensing threw 39 pitches on Friday but is probably a no-go for tomorrow since he’s not used to that life.

Bobby Keppel (14 pitches), Matt Guerrier (18 pitches) and Joe Nathan (21) should be good to go.

I would doubt that Jose Mijares (32) would be used. R.A. Dickey? Who knows? He threw 42 pitches but is supposed to be durable.

Detroit had Armando Galarraga warming in the pen at the end of the game. But relievers Freddy Dolsi (64) and Joel Zumaya (53) can’t be expected to be available on Saturday.

SPAN THE MAN

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has made dizzy jokes to Denard Span ever since he came off the disabled list. Span said he would have occasional dizzy moments as he worked his way back from a vestibular neuritis of the right ear.

But he said Friday was the first day he felt totally fine. It showed has he had his first five-hit game of his career.

“This is the best I felt in a month,” Span said. “Someone predicted that I would hit a home run today (me). I didn’t do that but I had a lot energy and I haven’t had that in over a month, It’s good to come here today and feel like myself.”

Span raised his averaged from .282 to .292 on Friday.

MAUER WATCH

Joe Mauer had eight plate appearnces on Friday, bringing him within four plate appearances of qualifying for the league leaders.

He’ll be seven behind when play starts tomorrow. He’ll need 254.2 plate appearances to qualify and he’ll be at 248. He’ll probably be the designated hitter tomorrow after catching all 16 innings on Friday. That will lead to an interesting decsion by Ron Gardenhire because Delmon Young was 3 for 6 with a homer and double but Jason Kubel should get a shot at Edwin Jackson.

FINALLY

The Twins had allowed more than five runs only three times in the their previous 34 games before Friday.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 1:24 am and is filed under Random thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.