Twins send Miguel Sano to have MRI on his sore right elbow

Miguel Sano woke up Aug. 7 in St. Petersburg, Fla., with a sore right elbow. Then he hit two home runs against the Rays and tried not to worry about it.

But the pain, while not intense, has not gone away, either, so the Twins will send their young slugger for a magnetic resonance imaging test Monday, just to make sure it's nothing more than inflammation.

"It's just precautionary," manager Paul Molitor said. "We don't feel like there's anything other than just a tender elbow."

There's a reason for their caution, though: That's the elbow that was surgically repaired two springs ago, a Tommy John procedure that idled Sano for the 2014 season. "A player's history is part of what gets your attention," Molitor said. "I want to make sure we don't put him out there and then find out there may be something we aren't expecting."

Sano downplayed the test, pointing out that he remembers the sharp pain of a torn tendon in that elbow. This isn't it, he said.

"I can feel if it's something big," Sano said. "I'm not worried about anything being severe."

He can't point to any certain throw he made; the soreness was gradual — "Little by little, it progressed," he said — and doesn't bother him at the plate, he said. Still, he wants to get it cleared up so he can return to third base.

Hector Santiago isn't happy about his 9.42 ERA since joining the Twins, especially since it comes immediately after a July with the Angels when the lefthander went 6-0 with a 1.78 ERA. But he noticed one number that makes him happy: zero.

That's the number of walks he issued in Sunday's 11-4 loss to the Royals, an encouraging sign, he said, that his command is improving. It's only the second time in more than a calendar year that he's had a no-walk start.

"I'm definitely seeing results," said Santiago, acquired on Aug. 1 in a trade that sent Ricky Nolasco and Alex Meyer to the Angels. "I'm pounding the zone, [having] low pitch counts, so I'm taking positives from it. But I know I've got to make better pitches in certain counts."

More than 3,000 Twins fans stayed after Friday night's game to take part in the team's annual Faith Night, an event organized by team chaplain Dave McIver that included testimonials by Kyle Gibson, Eduardo Escobar and Brian Dozier, along with Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy.

The night also included an emotional presentation by Wayzata residents Gordy and Nancy Engel, whose missionary daughter, son-in-law and three young grandchildren were killed in an auto accident July 31 in Nebraska.

• Gibson will start Wednesday at Atlanta, Molitor said, pushing Jose Berrios' next outing to Thursday at Kansas City. The move keeps Gibson on regular rest and allows him to bat in the National League park, something Berrios has never done in his professional career.