Adalberto Mejia was hooked up to a machine before Wednesday's game to help with his recovery after suffering a strained wrist on Tuesday on the final pitch he threw to the Indians.
The discomfort he felt was not elbow related, and there is optimism that he will make his next scheduled start on Sunday against the Tigers, but they won't be sure until he throws in the bullpen. Head trainer Tony Leo told Molitor to wait one more day before having him start to ramp up for that start.
"He's doing better today," Molitor said. "I was hoping we would have a little better indication of what Sunday might bring. But Tony Leo has asked to buy a little more time. He's really encouraged about the opportunity for him to go ahead and throw on Sunday.
"But the day after you are not going to do much. Provably long toss tomorrow and bullpen on Friday. So we are going to buy a little bit more time than the original 24 hours that we talked about."
Mejia, 2-0 with a 2.01 ERA, is expected to play some catch on Thursday then attempt to throw in the bullpen on Friday. For now, the Twins have TBA listed as the start on Sunday.
Here are the other pitching matchups for the Detroit series:
Friday: Ervin Santana vs Jordan Zimmerman
Saturday: Kyle Gibson vs Francisco Liriano
Sunday: TBA vs Matthew Boyd.
Buxton swings
Byron Buxton, who was shut down with a strained left wrist, took swings in the batting cage on Tuesday and was scheduled to hit indoors on Wednesday.
"He hit in the cage yesterday and I guess with the weather today it is going to be in the cage down there again," Molitor said. "I think that we're probably not looking at a game until sometime next week if the next three, four, five days go well as progressing with his swing."
That suggests that Buxton, trying to salvage a season derailed by injuries and lack of solid contact, has come around faster than they thought. But that thinking could be dangerous when dealing with a hand-wrist injury.
"They immobilized it for four days just to make sure he didn’t irritate it," Molitor said. "There was a collaboration that said that this was something we can find out sooner rather than later without much risk.
"I think the hard part with this injury, from what I can understand and from some personal history, is that you take your normal swing during BP or off the tee or flips, you’re not getting fooled. It’s not having to start and stop and check swings. I think that’s when these things get aggravated. Those are tough to simulate in a practice environment.”
Buxton is in a race against the calendar to get back on the field at Class AAA Rochester and impress enough to merit joining the Twins for the final month of the season. Remember, the minor league season ends in late August, so Buxton needs a stretch of games there to try to find his offense. The Twins might shut Buxton down if he can't sharpen his bat.
Twins
Joe Mauer, DH
Eddie Rosario, LF
Jorge Polanco, SS
Miguel Sano, 3B
Max Kepler, RF
Logan Forsythe, 2B
LoMo, 1B
Mitch Garver, C
Jake Cave, CF
Jake Odorizzi, RHP
Indians
Francisco Lindor, SS
Michael Brantley, LF
Jose Ramirez, 3B
Juan Encarnacion, DH
Yonder Alonso, 1B
Melky Cabrera, RF
Json Kipnis, 2B
Yan Gomes, C
Brandon Guyer, CF
Mike Clevinger, RHP
La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts. Mark Rosen borrows him occasionally for WCCO-TV.
Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.
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