FORT MYERS, FLA. – Twins closer Glen Perkins threw "20, 25 pitches'' in a bullpen session on Saturday morning with no pain on his right side. Perkins originally felt discomfort in a bullpen session on March 6, and again when he tried to throw three days later.
Perkins threw off flat ground on Saturday, didn't feel the pull in his side, and went ahead with the bullpen session on Sunday.
"There was no problem today,'' Perkins said after he left the bullpen mound. "I didn't cut loose completely, although I did let it go more the last few pitches. I'm on optimistic that I can get back on schedule here."
Barring a setback, the plan now is for Perkins to throw another bullpen on Tuesday, and then to get in an exhibition game on Thursday.
Perkins reiterated that this is only the second time that he's been bothered by a pull in the oblique area.
"It was 2011, and there was irritation there, but I didn't think that much of it and kept pitching,'' Perkins said. "Then, I threw a slider to Miguel Montero, yanked the oblique and missed a month.
"I wasn't going to do that again. I think we got ahead of this and started treating it at the right time.''
Perkins only action in a game this spring came on March 4, when he asked to pitch an inning in the unofficial exhibition opener against his college team, the Gophers.