Kyle Garlick becomes yet another Twins center fielder

BALTIMORE - Kyle Garlick played in his 30th game as a Twin on Tuesday, a milestone because it ties the most major league games he's ever played in a season.

As if to celebrate the occasion, the Twins gave him an extra challenge: Playing a new position.

"I haven't played center field since 2015, when I was in college at Cal Poly Pomona," said the 29-year-old corner outfielder, who recently began taking fly balls in the middle of the diamond, just in case. "It's exciting. I'm just going to do the best I can out there."

Garlick was tested right away. The Orioles' first batter, Cedric Mullins, launched a long fly ball off the wall in right-center, a ball that ricocheted past fill-in right fielder Willians Astudillo, which took Garlick by surprise. He caught up to it quickly, however, though too late to prevent Mullins from reaching third base with a triple.

But Garlick's presence paid off at the plate. Against lefthander Bruce Zimmermann, the outfielder pounded a 2-2 changeup a dozen rows up in the left-field seats, his fourth home run of the season and the fourth Twins center fielder to homer this year. There's more to come, Garlick said, now that he feels like a bona fide big-leaguer.

"It comes down to just being comfortable up here. I'd say I am now, certainly more than at the beginning of the year when I'm trying to figure out my role," said Garlick, who appeared in 30 games with the Dodgers in 2019 and 12 with the Phillies last year.

Garlick's move to center field became necessary when Rob Refsnyder began feeling the day-after effects of his headlong crash into the wall Monday. Refsnyder, who had been battling a sore left quad, aggravated the injury while trying to catch Ryan Mountcastle's home run.

"This outfield, obviously with the unique shape out there, can kind of trick you and make you kind of think you're in a spot where you're not," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. The team's trainers advised giving Refsnyder a day off to recover from the collision, but the quad injury is not expected to sideline him for long.

The play made for a funny clip, and the Camden Yards grounds crew joined in by creating an image of Refsnyder's collision out of masking tape on the wall where it occurred. The Twins saw it as they arrived for Tuesday's game, and it was widely distributed on social media. But it was removed from the wall before batting practice.

"Some of the guys thought it was funny," Baldelli said. "Other guys, maybe less so."

One thing Baldelli said he found funny: A video posted by third baseman Josh Donaldson on his Twitter account (@bringerofrain), showing clips of Austin Powers movies with Baldelli's face superimposed over several characters.

"JD found this app, a $35 app, not a freebie. He was having some fun with it," Baldelli said. "He popped in and showed me all these videos he made, and one that I was starring in. I said, 'Put it on Twitter, I don't care.' He did. Didn't take him long."

The manager said the video, along with a couple of hard-hit balls lately, are a sign that "he's back."

"This is part of JD being back. It was good," said Baldelli, who has carried on tongue-in-cheek feuds with fellow managers Derek Shelton and Kevin Cash. "I'll have to respond in some way at some point."

• Kenta Maeda threw long-toss in the outfield during batting practice, and "I felt good. The next step is for more intensity," he said afterward. Maeda said the groin strain that bothered him earlier this month and forced him to the injured list is no longer a problem.

• Outfielder Trevor Larnach took batting practice on the field and hit a few home runs, proving to Baldelli that his left foot, still sore a couple of days after being hit by a pitch last Sunday, is feeling better. Larnach pinch hit in the seventh inning and played right field for the final two innings.