Trevor Plouffe makes a wish — and Alex Kirilloff makes it come true

Alex Kirilloff homered in the fifth inning Sunday, his first home run since June 16, and he pointed toward Bally Sports North broadcaster Trevor Plouffe after he rounded third base.

"I feel like I need to mention this now," Plouffe shared during Kirilloff's at-bat in the third inning, "I was down in the clubhouse and it was 11:11 a.m. I was standing next to Kirilloff and I said, 'I'm going to use this wish right now for you.' I said, 'Please, I wish that Alex Kirilloff hits a homer today.'

"He said, 'If that happens, I'm going to point to you up in the press box.' "

Kirilloff went 70 plate appearances between home runs. Plouffe, the former Twins player, pumped his fist when he saw Kirilloff point at him.

"Man, that was one of the cooler things we'll see all year," Justin Morneau said on the broadcast afterward. "The fact that he remembered coming around the bases — a lot of times you get caught up in the moment and you're reliving that feeling going around the bases. The fact he remembered you had that conversation, halfway between third base and home plate, and remembered to look up here at you, that's good stuff."

It was Kirilloff's fifth home run of the season and the 16th of his career.

"I've got to give you a lot of credit," Kirilloff told Plouffe in their postgame interview. "That was a great call by you. Normally, a lot of people want to point to the bullpen and stuff like that. I've got to be honest, I forget a lot of times."

Jorge Polanco's first swing on his Class AAA rehab assignment was a double that dropped in the left-center gap at CHS Field on Sunday.

The second baseman, who has been limited to 30 games this season because of three separate stints on the injured list, is expected to spend at least a week with St. Paul before rejoining the Twins. He served as the designated hitter Sunday, recording two hits, a walk and a strikeout in four plate appearances.

The Twins want to be cautious with Polanco because he played only seven games at the beginning of June before he had a reoccurring hamstring strain in his left leg.

"I take full blame for this happening," Twins head trainer Nick Paparesta said afterward. "This is my job to make sure these guys are able to get back on the field and not have reoccurring injuries. The situation with him injuring the hamstring again was something we took some time, looked back upon and did a little bit of an evaluation. We thought we had some changes that needed to be made."

Polanco, who missed the first three weeks of the season recovering from left knee inflammation, was batting .250 with five homers and 16 RBI through 120 at-bats while posting a .291 on-base percentage.

"Nick, Rocco and I have talked about how many days we want to see him back to back," Derek Falvey, Twins president of baseball operations, said last week. "Obviously DH days will factor into that as we build up just to get him some of those at-bats. I think how much he's playing second base, how much he's getting out there, how much he's running … we're going to take a thoughtful approach to the rehab assignment. It's not going to be quick."

• Dallas Keuchel gave up three runs (one earned) across six innings in his fourth start with the St. Paul Saints, a 5-3 loss to Durham on Sunday. Keuchel, who owns a 0.90 ERA through 20 innings, gave up eight hits while striking out six. Chris Williams homered for the 17th time this season in the loss.

• Twins minor leaguer Alex Isola led Class AA Wichita to a wild 13-12 victory in 10 innings in Springfield on Sunday with an inside-the-park walk-off homer. Isola hit a line drive that skipped past a diving center fielder, and he slid under the relay throw at the plate.