Twins manager Rocco Baldelli cautioned ahead of Friday's game the lineup wouldn't come together until the last possible moment.
The team waited on a couple injured players, hoping they could start the game. One did in Jose Miranda, who took a pitch off his left wrist Thursday but played through it. Byron Buxton was a no-go with his season-long right knee issue. Gio Urshela twisted his left ankle running to first in his pinch-hitting appearance Thursday and also didn't start — he did come in for a late at-bat and smacked a hit but immediately came out for a pinch runner.
Urshela also sat out of Saturday's lineup, but Jorge Polanco was back in the infield after being the designated hitter Friday. That was a somewhat perplexing move, considering Luis Arraez was at Polanco's usual second base spot. But it had good reasoning behind it.
"Polo had a tooth pulled and had a lot of dental work associated with that early in the day [Friday]," Baldelli said, adding Polanco was under anesthesia for the procedure. "… We were basically out of players in order to find a way to field a lineup. We didn't feel comfortable putting Polo out there in the field because, I mean, his face is swollen, and he's on medication. … There's reasons why we sometimes have guys in certain spots."
So Polanco batted only, mouth packed with gauze and all, and drew two walks, scoring on Nick Gordon's home run as the team pulled out a 6-5 victory in 10 innings.
The Twins had more reinforcements Saturday, with Max Kepler coming off the injured list. Kepler has a broken right pinky toe but will play as it heals. Saturday he was in right field and batting fifth.
"I'd expect him to be pretty close to back to normal," Baldelli said. "… He's going to feel some soreness, but it's definitely stuff he can play through."
To make room for Kepler, the Twins optioned outfielder Mark Contreras back to Class AAA St. Paul. Contreras had a good week, hitting his first and second major league home runs.