Twins' Nick Gordon fractures shin, will go on injured list

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers won Wednesday's game, won the three-game series, and surely won the Twins' respect for the way they came from behind to earn their two victories.

But in a sense, both teams took losses in the finale.

Nick Gordon fouled a pitch off his right shin during his fifth-inning at-bat, and X-rays showed he fractured the bone. Jorge Polanco felt his left hamstring tighten as he ran to first base in the fourth inning, and it nagged him from that point on. Joey Gallo fouled a pitch off his right leg in the ninth, and Ryan Jeffers had to finish his at-bat, and the game, with a strikeout.

And Dodgers starter Dustin May, finally established in the Los Angeles rotation, left after one inning for an ominous reason: pain in his pitching elbow.

"It's been awhile since I've seen a game like that," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the body count. "This was a tough one for both sides."

Gordon will be placed on the injured list before Friday night's game in Anaheim, and Polanco, given the Twins' special care to manage his recovery from a knee injury, figures to join him, though he'll be examined again before that becomes official.

And Gallo?

"I would think, as of right now, I'm going to try to play no matter what," the slugger said, noting that an X-ray found only a bruise. "Just going to have to get a longer shin guard, for sure. I should be fine."

Still, he admitted his leg is plenty swollen and sore. "That's probably the worst I've fouled a ball off my shin since I've been playing," Gallo said, a sentiment that Twins manager Rocco Baldelli agreed with.

"Joey was not in good shape when he came out of the game," Baldelli said.

The Twins have a number of options to choose from at Class AAA St. Paul, including infielder Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien and outfielder Kyle Garlick. Losing the versatile Gordon likely will give Willi Castro, who manned third base, center field and second base on Wednesday alone, more playing time.

"We've got some things to talk about," Baldelli said.

The manager said he felt guilty about allowing Gordon to finish his at-bat after the injury.

"I wish Nick didn't have to take that last swing, knowing now that his leg was fractured," Baldelli said. "Doesn't look like it's displaced, or he further hurt himself talking that extra swing. But I'll bet it was painful as hell."

Sonny Gray got through his start healthy, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel the need to do a little rehab before his next start. The veteran righthander, powerfully intense before his starts, is also unsparingly self-critical when he doesn't pitch well.

So after throwing 86 pitches in four arduous innings, the third straight outing less than six innings long, Gray sounded depressed but determined about his performance.

"It's kind of a running theme here lately — just didn't throw enough strikes, wasn't in the zone as early and often as I needed to be," Gray grumbled. "Something I've got to clean up and get back to being able to provide some length. I'm well aware of it, so it will be a good week to kind of sit down and take a look in the mirror."

Gray walked three batters for the second time in three starts, and gave up five hits. But he allowed only two runs, stranding six Dodgers on base.

"When you pull competitive pitchers out of the game after four innings, they're never happy," Baldelli noted. "But that's OK. He worked pretty hard in those four innings."

A second-inning error that allowed two runs to score proved costly, and the St. Paul Saints fell 4-3 to the Columbus Clippers in in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday. With runners on first and third, Micah Pries of the Clippers hit a tapper to the right of the mound that pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson knocked down, but threw away at first to give Columbus a 2-0 lead. A Jose Miranda RBI single made the score 4-3 in the sixth, but he hit into a game-ending double-play in the ninth.

Baldelli on Royce Lewis' 425-foot home run in his Triple-A season debut Tuesday: "I especially enjoyed the outfielder who, for maybe a split second, gave that pitcher some hope. That pitcher, he knew the ball was gone. And then he thought, but is it? And then he thought, yes, it is."