Twins place Alex Kirilloff on injured list because of shoulder inflammation

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Alex Kirilloff was hoping to stay in the Twins lineup while his sore shoulder healed, but instead "he went backwards a little bit," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He's just not able to swing the bat right now because he's feeling some weakness in his shoulder."

Kirilloff was placed on the injured list Sunday because of inflammation in his right shoulder, the result of diving for a ball in a game last week. He probably would have gone on the list on Tuesday anyway, but the move was accelerated by the Twins' need for another reliever in the bullpen, after all seven members pitched either Friday or Saturday.

The move means the Twins will be without one of their hottest hitters for at least their next eight games. In 13 games since the All-Star break, Kirilloff had hit four home runs, four doubles and a triple, driving in 14 runs.

Lefthander Caleb Thielbar was activated from the injured list, and the Twins figure to stick with a 13-man pitching staff again for the foreseeable future.

Thielbar, his oblique muscle finally pain-free in a season in which he's pitched only 10⅓ innings, believes he has not only diagnosed the cause of his injury, but a factor that was holding him back as a pitcher.

"I changed my stride direction. I was getting a little bit too open, and that probably put a little too much stress on the" oblique, Thielbar said. The change "makes my stuff better, honestly. My stuff is in a really good spot. Velocity is in a really good spot."

Thielbar has pitched only once for the Twins since May 2, so he wants to get back to work.

"It's been a long summer. I've been out for basically three months now, so it's been tough to deal with," said Thielbar, at 36 the oldest player on the Twins roster. "I want to be out there competing with the guys. They've been having a lot of fun this summer, and I haven't really been a part of it."

Thielbar pitched twice for Class AAA St. Paul on a rehab assignment last week and didn't give up a hit in two innings.

One day after Willi Castro made a glaring mental mistake, getting thrown out at third base with the Twins trailing by three, his overaggressiveness cost him again.

With Nicky Lopez on first base in the third inning Sunday, Maikel Garcia smacked a hard line drive toward to left field. Castro hustled back in hopes of catching it, but the ball wasn't hit high enough to give him time to reach it, and it carried over his head.

The ball took a high bounce off the wall and ricocheted back about 15 feet toward the infield, but Castro's momentum took him in the opposite direction. By the time Castro recovered and threw the ball to Carlos Correa, Lopez had rounded third and scored the go-ahead — and ultimately, winning — run.

"I was going so fast back, as fast as I could go, I was trying to see if I had a chance to catch it," Castro said. "But as soon as I see it hit the post and bounce back, I was just like, 'Go get it.' It was a big bounce."

The play was an understandable mistake, Baldelli said, by a player who believed he could make the catch.

"He probably got himself a little tight to the ball and wasn't able to get back. He kind of went to the wall and then had to recover," the manager said. "Little plays like that can mean extra bases. But it's kind of a minor thing that we can work on with him, so he'll try to do better. He gets aggressive in the outfield. That's also why he makes good plays, too."

As for Saturday's baserunning gaffe, Baldelli said his coaches had addressed it with Castro, who understands his error.

"He got overaggressive and did something he definitely shouldn't have done," Baldelli said. "If you bench people every time they make a mistake out on the field or do something that's not a smart baseball play, you're going to have a tough time putting a lineup on the field. And that's every team."

Trevor Larnach and Kyle Garlick hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, Alex De Goti hit a three-run shot two innings later and Louie Varland struck out seven Mud Hens in six innings as the Saints beat Toledo 7-2 at CHS Field. The victory was the 200th for Saints manager Toby Gardenhire.