Nelson Cruz's sore hip no major concern for Twins

The Twins are headed down the stretch of a shortened season, but Rocco Baldelli will continue to find ways to keep players fresh.

Nelson Cruz was removed from the starting lineup in Sunday's 10-8 loss to Detroit because of what Baldelli described as minor hip soreness.

"Nelson's been playing a lot. He's been out there. We've penciled him in there basically every day this year," Baldelli said. "He's felt good. Coming in today after the doubleheader, after the night game going into the day game, I think he just woke up a little bit stiff and there's no reason for us to not give him the time. We have another doubleheader coming up, we have another day game tomorrow."

A manager has to have the right feel for his roster when it comes to giving days off. And there could be temptation to play his key players as much as possible with 18 games left and playoff positioning at stake.

On the other hand, the expanded playoff system this year should provide some wiggle room. The Twins are a near-lock to be one of the top eight teams in the AL, so there's no urgency for Baldelli to lean on his core group.

And the offense did fine Sunday without Cruz, scoring eight runs on 13 hits.

Thing did not even out for Eddie Rosario on Sunday.

The outfielder did hit his ninth homer of the season, but he ran through a stop sign from third base coach Tony Diaz in the fifth inning — nearly running through Diaz — and also assumed that Jonathan Schoop's eighth-inning drive down the line was a ground-rule double because it bounced in the corner and hit the Kasota stone to the left of the foul pole.

It is written in the ground rules at Target Field that a ball is in play if it hits the wall and returns to the playing field. A run scored and Schoop sprinted to third by the time Rosario realized he needed to pick the ball up and throw it in.

"I believe it's the first time that I've seen it in person over the last two years," Baldelli said. "It's not a play that happens very much. I mean Eddie's been here I'm guessing six seasons and he said he's never seen that before, so we shouldn't assume anything. We should probably re-go over, go over that again just to make sure. Who knows if that'll pop up again."

Luis Arraez started for the first time since Wednesday and helped the cause, collecting a single in the third inning and an RBI double in the fifth.

There's no doubt that the Twins could use more of that from Arraez, but the second baseman is battling tendinitis in his right knee that could be an issue the rest of the season. And it could be a reason why he is batting .277 after batting .334 as a rookie in 2019.

"There's no coincidence there. Him feeling comfortable." hitting coach Edgar Varela said. "He's a professional as well. He comes to the cage to work every day on his craft. I think it has a combination of making sure he's feeling healthy and it is his knee, so that's his foundation principles of his legs and how he uses his legs. So that definitely can have an effect in the consistency of his daily work and daily game preparation."

• LaMonte Wade Jr. saw 10 pitches from Casey Mize in the second inning before striking out, another eight in the fourth while drawing a walk and then 12 pitches in the fifth against Rony Garcia. Wade is the first Twins player since Chris Parmelee in 2013 to have two plate appearances of at least 10 pitches in the same game.

• Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire monitored the game from inside the clubhouse as he deals with a gastrointestinal issue. Lloyd McClendon ran the team instead.