Morneau takes a rare day away

Bruce Bisping, Star Tribune

Justin Morneau

By JOE CHRISTENSEN, Star Tribune

Last update: June 21, 2009 - 10:19 PM

Twins first baseman Justin Morneau missed his first game since June 23, 2007, on Sunday, ending baseball's second-longest consecutive games streak at 319.

Morneau spent the day in the training room and was unavailable to the media, as the Twins lost to Houston 4-1. Manager Ron Gardenhire said Morneau couldn't even pinch hit but wouldn't specify what was ailing the slugger, other than "general soreness."

The Twins are off today, and Gardenhire said he hopes Morneau can play Tuesday night in Milwaukee.

"He plans on being in there everyday, but he knew when he came in that he was not feeling very good," Gardenhire said. "He was going to try to get loose, and we walked over and checked him, and it was not working out.

"We saw that at the end of last year, when he played through everything -- the bad back, the whole package -- and we don't want to get into those things, not in the middle part of the year."

Morneau would have owned baseball's longest active consecutive games streak, as Philadelphia first baseman Ryan Howard -- the other league MVP from 2006 -- also missed Sunday's game because of flu symptoms, ending his streak at 343.

That makes San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez baseball's current ironman, with a consecutive games streak of 274.

Bullpen help?

At Class AAA Rochester, Bobby Keppel has a contract clause that allows the righthander to become a free agent if he is not placed on the major league roster by July 1.

There are indications that the Twins plan to promote Keppel soon. The 27-year-old is 3-3 with a 2.43 ERA for Rochester in 23 appearances, including three starts.

Rotation shuffle

The Twins pushed Kevin Slowey's next start from Thursday to Saturday, giving him two extra days after he experienced tightness in his right rib cage during Friday's victory.

Slowey said his rib cage hasn't bothered him since Friday, but with an off day today, this also enabled the Twins to split up lefthanders Glen Perkins and Francisco Liriano.

Liriano, Nick Blackburn and Scott Baker will face Milwaukee, with Perkins and Slowey pitching the first two games in St. Louis.

Etc.

• Carlos Gomez has made many spectacular plays for the Twins, but he hadn't robbed a home run before Sunday, when he reached above the center-field wall in the seventh inning to steal one from Carlos Lee. When he was with the White Sox, Lee also memorably had a Metrodome home run stolen from him by Torii Hunter, in May 2003.

• Nick Punto is day-to-day with bruised ribs, though Gardenhire hinted that Punto might have an MRI today to make sure the injury isn't more serious.

• Denard Span (inner-ear infection) is scheduled to play for Class AAA Rochester tonight and Tuesday before being activated from the DL on Thursday.

• Jason Kubel left Sunday's game because of flu symptoms.

• In Milwaukee, the Twins are scheduled to face Brewers righthanders Jeff Suppan, Braden Looper and Dave Bush, though the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the team is considering pushing Bush's start back.

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