Postgame: Nolasco enjoys his near-miss of a homer in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE — Some extras from Miller Park before the Twins move on to Washington:

Ricky Nolasco talked about throwing his slider, striking out Ryan Braun, limiting the Brewers to one run. Then he talked about the important stuff: Hitting.

"It was kind of fun hitting again," the righthander said. Nolasco misses it more than most, because his first eight seasons were spent in the National League, where he collected 51 career hits.

And when he came up in the second inning, he launched a rocket that landed on the warning track in right field. Surely he thought he had hit his first home run since he was a rookie, right?

"No, not really," Nolasco said. "Two strikes, I was choking up. I was actually hoping it would come down because it was a little too high. I put a decent swing on it."

It's a shame he didn't get 10 feet more carry, because the next home run by a Twins pitcher will be historic. The last three home runs hit by Minnesota pitchers were all hit by Jim Kaat — who is 77 years old now. Karat's last blast was in 1972; no Twins pitcher has connected since interleague play began in 1997.

Two innings after his near miss, Nolasco drew a walk, taking a fastball off the plate on a 3-2 count. That meant he got to run the bases.

He wasn't for long. Nolasco was erased on a force play moments later.

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Rough day for John Ryan Murphy, who is suffering a nightmare of a start with his new team. Nine base runners were in scoring position during his five at-bats Thursday, and Murphy drove in none of them. In fact, he still hasn't collected an RBI this season.

Murphy ended four different innings, three of them with ground outs (one for a double play) and once on a fly ball. He struck out in the ninth, too, dropping his season average to .077 — 2 for 26.

On the bright side, that's still better than the .050 — 1-for-20 — posted by Aaron Hicks, the player he was traded for last November, for the Yankees.