Twins' Plouffe has strained intercostal muscle

Trevor Plouffe felt some discomfort on his right side in recent days but it wasn't limiting him, so he thought nothing of it.

"I hadn't felt it swinging or running or throwing," he said.

That all changed Sunday after the Twins third baseman drew a 10th-inning walk. He was stranded at first to end the inning and began to jog to his position at third base in the top of the 11th when it hit him.

"As I was jogging, I just felt it kind of grab me," he said. "It was one of those freak things."

Plouffe left the game and was diagnosed with an intercostal muscle strain.

The intercostal muscles are located between the ribs. Plouffe is listed as day-to-day, but he could land on the disabled list if there isn't sufficient improvement over the next couple of days. Last year, Twins relievers Brian Duensing and Tim Stauffer landed on the DL because of intercostal strains.

The timing is awful, as the Twins have won their past three games while Plouffe has gotten hot at the plate, going 8-for-12 in the three games with three doubles, a home run and four RBI.

Teammates continued to rave about Byung Ho Park's massively long home run Saturday. His 462-foot home run, according to the Twins, is the fifth-longest in Target Field history.

Plouffe said there are only a few players he could think of who could hit a ball as far as Park's. "Josh Hamilton, [Jim] Thome, Miguel Cabrera and Giancarlo Stanton," Plouffe said.

MLB.com's Statcast estimated Park's homer at 451.2 feet. But ESPN's home run tracker estimated the "true distance" at 466.

Arguing about home run distances continues to be part of baseball's lore because, even today, everyone believes their method of measurement is the most accurate. The Twins estimated Thome's homer on July 17, 2011 — the one that landed in Section 238 in right-center and is considered the longest hit in Target Field — at 490 feet. ESPN, however, estimates it at 464.

Either way, Park's home run was quite a poke.

The Twins have the ball and plan to have him sign it before they display it in Catch, the new deck in center field where the ball landed.

Ex-Twins star Michael Cuddyer, who retired last year after a 15-year career, was in town Sunday celebrate the anniversary of the Twins Community Fund.

Twins President Dave St. Peter said the club sent out a general e-mail about the anniversary celebration. Cuddyer, a former board member, responded by saying he was coming in for the event. Pleasantly surprised, the Twins then invited Cuddyer to throw out the first pitch. And that he did.

"He was a great player for us and Colorado and New York as well," said Joe Mauer, who caught Cuddyer's first pitch. "He's a special player. Great in the clubhouse. Plays the game the right way. He's a great guy for younger players to learn from."

With Eduardo Nunez at shortstop and John Ryan Murphy catching, Molitor went with the same lineup Sunday as he had Saturday — a lineup that looked similar to Friday's, too — because the lineup produced victories, now three in a row. Molitor did say Kurt Suzuki was pressing as much as anyone during the 0-9 start to the season, so he wanted to give him a break.