Twins being careful about not overusing reliever Jhoan Duran

HOUSTON — Jhoan Duran had faced 39 batters in May, entering the final day of the month, after pitching to 41 in April (and one game in March). But the months were notably different in one important way: The Twins' best reliever appeared in 12 games in the first month, and just eight in May.

That's not because he was any less effective. Matter of fact, the 25-year-old righthander recorded 32 outs in each month. But Duran, who never appeared in any inning but the ninth in April, had three two-inning appearances in the month just concluded.

Which, reading between the lines a little bit, makes manager Rocco Baldelli a little nervous.

"We're not going to leave him out there to throw an exorbitant amount of pitches. So he has to be efficient enough, and be feeling good and rested enough, and in the right game situation," Baldelli said. "When that plays out, we'll be open to it. But the vast majority of the time, I would prefer not to."

He knows just how valuable that 103-mph rocket launcher is, in other words. It's not worth risking an injury unless a victory is at stake.

That's what happened on Monday, when Duran pitched the bottom of the ninth in a tie game. After sending the game to extra innings, Baldelli and pitching coach Pete Maki decided that if the Twins scored in the 10th — and they did, on Ryan Jeffers' two-run homer — Duran would be asked to close out the win.

"One of the great things about Duran, on top of his performance, [is] he's really good about just simplifying what he has to do. He's not going to get in his own head, worrying about all kinds of things," Baldelli said. "If we check with him and he's good, he says 'I'm good.' And then we say, 'OK, we'll send you back out there.' And he goes, 'OK.' "

Still, it was a close call. Duran needed 17 pitches to get through the ninth, and the Twins haven't let him throw 30 in one game since last July.

"Say one at-bat gets flipped a little bit and he ends up throwing 20-something pitches, we're probably not running him out there for a full inning," Baldelli said. "It's never a fun thing to have to go out there with the game on the line and take Jhoan Duran out of the game. No, that's never what anyone is going to want to see, myself included."

Rookie Royce Lewis sat out Wednesday's game, Baldelli said, because the Twins intend to protect his twice-repaired right knee for awhile.

But the Twins were also missing Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton, two players whose pain is a little more pronounced.

Buxton has been battling a recurrence of the knee soreness that also sidelined him for Monday's game, soreness that is at least partially responsible for his 1-for-17 slump over the past week.

"Buck's doing OK. It's appropriate right now to have him off his feet for a couple of days in this series," Baldelli said of Buxton, who was out of the starting lineup for the eighth time in 56 games. "Is he at his absolutely strongest and most dynamic physically right now? No, so we want to take this an an opportunity to recharge a little bit."

Same for Correa, who seems to have put last week's mild case of plantar fasciitis behind him. "But I'm just making sore that no soreness gets to the next level, or that anything lasting pops up," the manager said. "I'm hopeful that once we get past today, we're not even going to be discussing his [foot] at all anymore."

Jose Miranda went 3-for-5 with a homer, three RBI and a run scored as the St. Paul Saints rolled to their fourth victory in a row, beating the Buffalo Bisons 6-2 in Buffalo, N.Y. The Saints jumped to a 2-0 lead on Kyle Garlick's two-run homer in the first inning. Matt Wallner also continued his torrid pace, driving a solo homer to left-center in the seventh for a 4-1 lead as part of his 3-for-5 night. Starter Aaron Sanchez pitched five innings, allowing an unearned run on four hits with one walk and one strikeout.