Twins closer Glen Perkins will be evaluated by Twins doctors sometime before game time after he gave up another home run and showed decreased velocity on Tuesday against the Tigers.

Perkins did miss a couple days with a sore neck recently, so one thought is that he's been trying to pitch with lingering soreness. He did tell the coaching staff that he didn't feel good after Wednesday's outing.

The ninth inning, should the Twins have lead at the time, will be interesting.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said Michael Tonkin, Lester Oliveros and Jared Burton are the closing candidates in the bullpen. The guess here that he could go with the veteran Burton against an experienced lineup like Detroit's. But anything is possible.

Reliever Casey Fien appeared in 73 games last season and is at 71 this year. The coaching staff feels the setup man might be running out of gas. So they plan to keep him out of action today and possibly tomorrow.

Infielder Eduardo Escobar has a jammed shoulder and is day-to-day. This would have been a chance for Santana to start at short, but Gardenhire wanted Eduardo Nunez, who has a .290 career average against David Price, to start there.

Oswaldo Arcia took some swings in the batting cage and said his back feels better. He should return to the lineup on Friday.

Tigers lefty David Price is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA this season against the Twins.

Tigers (84-67)


Ian Kinsler, 2B
TORII, RF
MIGGY, 1B
V-Mart, DH
J.D. Martinez, LF
Nick Castellanos, 3B
Bryan Holaday, C
Austin Romine, SS
Rajai Davis, CF

David Price, LHP

Twins

Danny Santana, CF
Brian Dozier, 2B
Joe Mauer, 1B
Kennys Vargas, DH
Trevor Plouffe, 3B
Kurt Suzuki, C
Eduardo Nunez, SS
Aaron Hicks, RF
Jordan Schafer, LF

Kyle Gibson, RHP