Twins place Max Kepler on injured list, recall Trevor Larnach

Outfielder Trevor Larnach was driving to CHS Field on Saturday morning for the St. Paul Saints' afternoon game against Indianapolis when he, quite literally, got the call back to the big leagues.

"I found out on my way to the field, so I just turned around," he said. "And now I'm here."

Recalled when the Twins placed outfielder Max Kepler on the 10-day injured list because of a left hamstring strain, Larnach was in the day's lineup batting fifth in a rain-delayed afternoon game against the Chicago Cubs.

Kepler was injured in Thursday's game against San Diego, which at the time was considered a cramp. He didn't start Friday, but manager Rocco Baldelli said that was because the Cubs were starting a lefthander in Drew Smyly. Kepler pinch hit in the seventh inning, flying out, but didn't play in the field after that.

Baldelli on Saturday said a magnetic resonance imaging exam "seems OK," but said Kepler, who also spent 10 days on the injured list in April because of right patellar tendinitis, is "still pretty tight."

"We were hoping he wouldn't need to go on the IL," Baldelli said. "But we don't think he's going to be able to play for a handful of days. So if you can't play for a handful of days, we're going to IL him and get someone in here who can go."

That someone is Larnach, who was sent to St. Paul on May 5 to rediscover his swing despite leading the Twins in RBI with 19 at the time.

Baldelli cited a schedule in which the Twins face righthanded starting pitchers — beginning Saturday against the Cubs' Hayden Wesneski — in four of the next five games as one determining factor why Larnach was recalled. "We're going to need some lefthanded bats here," Baldelli said.

Larnach went 7-for-14 with two doubles, two home runs, six RBI, three walks and five runs scored in four games for the Saints.

He walked into the team's Target Field clubhouse to hugs and greetings, carrying a backpack slung over his shoulder. A few minutes later, a clubhouse attendant wheeled a laundry cart filled with his gear, delivered promptly from his locker at CHS Field.

"I offered to go pick up my stuff, but they said no," Lanarch said.

Larnach and Jose Miranda both had been demoted to St. Paul in recent days. Larnach had struck out in seven at-bats in a row when the Twins sent him down, and he had two more strikeouts Saturday, with a fifth-inning single in between.

"You get called up, you get called down," Larnach said. "You can't take it too personally. It's baseball. It's the game you grew up playing. It's the same thing, just different location. That's just the way it is. The only difference is I just got my stuff.

"This game is hard. There's a lot of adjustment being made on you from the other team and you try to make your own adjustments for yourself and your body. There's no one way of doing it. That's what makes it hard."

The Twins also recalled righthander Cole Sands for his second stint in the majors this season, and he pitched the final two innings of Saturday's 11-1 rout, lowering his big-league ERA to 1.50 this season.

He is 0-1 with a 2.63 ERA, four walks and 16 strikeouts in seven relief appearances for the Saints. To make room for him on the 26-man roster, the Twins optioned fellow righthander Dereck Rodríguez to St. Paul.

Matt Wallner hit a first-inning homer, but that was the only offense the Saints generated in a 3-1 loss to Indianapolis at CHS Field. Aaron Sanchez gave up three runs (two earned) on seven hits in 4⅓ innings.