Twins pitcher Jose Berrios added to All-Star roster

OAKLAND, CALIF. – This time, there was no scheduling conflict.

Righthander Jose Berrios is on his way to his second consecutive All-Star Game, after being named the replacement for injured teammate Jake Odorizzi by the commissioner's office Wednesday. The league normally uses the results of player balloting to select replacements, meaning Berrios was either next on the list or the next pitcher without a conflict.

"Yeah. This one is still exciting for me, because I'm going to be an All-Star. That's why every player goes out there and play — to be an All-Star player, or to try to win a World Series championship. I had a chance to accomplish this goal. Now, I want to be ready for the next one."

A year ago, Berrios had scheduled a trip to Orlando for his family during the All-Star break. He had to rearrange some things when he was named to the team.

His wife and children are with him during the Twins' current road trip. The group had just returned to their room following breakfast when Berrios' phone rang and manager Rocco Baldelli was on the line.

He said it was a call he had been waiting for all week.

"He doesn't call me every day, so something must have happened," Berrios said. "He gave me the news."

"Yeah, I started screaming," he said. "[My family] said, 'Why are you screaming?' I said, 'We're going to Cleveland.' They said, 'Really?' And then they just came to me and I gave them a hug and they congratulated me."

Berrios, 8-4 with a 2.89 ERA, is the first Twins starting pitcher to go to consecutive All-Star Games since Johan Santana, who went to three in a row from 2005-07. At 25, the back-to-back bids is another signal of his ascension to being one the best pitchers in the game.

"He's a young guy and we usually add that into the conversation because it makes everything that much more impressive," Baldelli said. "You compare what he does with everybody in baseball, the best names you can come up with. And I think that he fits very well into that conversation in the best starting pitchers in baseball. I think he does a lot of those same things, has a lot of the same attributes."

Berrios and Odorizzi are the fifth pair of Twins pitchers to be named to the same All-Star team, joining Santana and Francisco Liriano in 2006; Eric Milton and Joe Mays in 2001; Jack Morris and Scott Erickson in 1991 and Camilo Pascual and Jim Kaat in 1962.

The Twins will enter the All-Star break with several players looking to benefit from the time off. At the top of the list is Baldelli's everyday multi-positional player Marwin Gonzalez.

On Wednesday, a bruise on his right big toe led to him to being scratched from the starting lineup. This comes only three days after he was activated from the 10-day injured list because of a right hamstring strain.

Baldelli said Gonzalez would likely have the toe X-rayed to make sure nothing serious is wrong. But he was confident Gonzalez could return to the lineup in a day or two.

The Twins' entry in the Dominican Summer League gave up no runs in the first inning Wednesday. It gave up 38 in the next eight, and the Yankees' DSL team defeated the Twins' 38-2.

The Twins gave up 31 hits, 17 for extra-base hits, five for home runs. Twins righthander Carlos Gutierrez gave up 10 earned runs in 1⅓ innings of relief. Starter Wilker Reyes lasted only two innings, the scoreless first and the three-run second.

The Twins sent a position player to the mound in each of the final three innings.