Twins notes: Injury to hand rankles Royals' Rios

Royals outfielder Alex Rios will miss up to six weeks because of a broken left hand, suffered on Monday when he was struck by an errant J.R. Graham pitch.

And he's not happy about it.

"It's very frustrating when you get inexperienced pitchers coming to the mound and showing a lot of energy, and not being able to control their emotions," Rios said "I think that's a recipe for disaster, when you have guys like that, high-energy guys without being able to control their emotions."

Kansas City hitters had been hit by pitches 12 times through six games, tied for the most in baseball — and Kyle Gibson hit Kendrys Morales in the fourth inning on Wednesday night — so some of Rios' remarks could be borne out of teamwide frustration about being plunked so much.

Graham entered the game in the eighth inning — right after Brian Duensing had hit Alex Gordon with a pitch to load the bases. It was quite a spot for a Rule 5 draft pick.

"I never go out there trying to hit anyone," Graham said. "I hope [Rios] has a speedy recovery and I wish him the best."

Twins pitchers have hit three batters in this young season.

It just so happened on Tuesday that 22 batters were hit by pitches across the league. There were two games in which four batters were hit.

"It's April," Twins righthander Phil Hughes said. "Pitchers aren't their sharpest."

Righthander Ricky Nolasco, on the 15-day disabled list because of elbow inflammation, went through long-toss drills on Wednesday with no problems. He will stick with the throwing drills for a couple more days and then, if all goes well, throw in the bullpen.

He's eligible to come off the DL on April 24, but Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said it's still too early to determine whether Nolasco will be ready to pitch in a game then.

"Whatever it takes," Ryan said. "I don't care if it is 15 or 18 or 20 [days]. I just want to make sure that he's right."

On Wednesday, Meyer gave up five earned runs over 3⅔ innings on seven hits, five walks and six strikeouts. He has walked 11 batters in 8⅔ innings pitched in his two starts.

Meyer had a chance to pitch himself into the rotation during spring training, but his control was an issue then, too.

"I think he's just a little out of sync right now," said Brad Steil, Twins director of minor league operations. "… He had a few games like this last year, so he'll be all right."

• Major League Baseball on Wednesday celebrated Jackie Robinson Day. All teams wore Robinson's No. 42 in honor of the player who broke baseball's color barrier. According to Richard Lapchick's annual study on race and gender in sports, black Americans made up 8.3 percent of Opening Day rosters, a slight increase from 8.2 percent last year.