Twins notes: Plouffe can't avoid return to DL

Third baseman Trevor Plouffe was headed to the workout room in the Twins clubhouse on Thursday so he could hop on the exercise bike.

Was he about to test his sore left calf to see if he could play?

"It's more like … rehab," he said.

Plouffe was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained calf suffered during pregame work Wednesday. The kick of it was that Plouffe has just been activated from the seven-day concussion list after being rattled May 21 while sliding into second base in Atlanta.

Plouffe, batting .254 with four homers and 17 RBI, was trying to get stretched out when he was injured.

The Twins hoped to backdate the DL move to when he last played, but it wasn't allowed. Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said Plouffe has had two separate DL stints, so he can't be backdated after coming off the concussion DL.

"We looked into that three different times," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Trying all the arguments. He hasn't played since the concussion but they have a special rule for that. I don't like the rule already because eight more games would have been plenty."

Chris Parmelee is forging a reputation for being a fearless defender.

Parmelee, playing in right field Saturday, tried to climb the right field wall in Detroit while trying to rob Jhonny Peralta of a home run.

On Wednesday, Parmelee was at first base and crashed into the right field camera well while catching a foul popup off the bat of Milwaukee's Carlos Gomez. Parmelee collided with the door to the bay, then tumbled headfirst into the well while still holding onto the ball.

"I try to play the game as hard as I can," Parmelee said. "It's a wall with padding on it, so I think I'll be OK. That's my take on it."

Parmelee said he didn't have time to look where he was going and thought he was going to land in the seats. "I didn't realize until I was upside down — and looking at steel — that I had gone into the camera well."

"I saw the gate fly open and the grounds crew did not help him," Gardenhire said. "That's who we are after now, the grounds crew."

Aaron Hicks entered Thursday batting .207 in May — not impressive, but an improvement from the .113 he hit in April. He's been working on shortening his lefthanded swing with hitting coach Tom Brunansky. He also has moved closer to the plate so he can pull the ball a little more.

Gardenhire said he's noticed a change in Hicks since some of the rookie's early struggles.