Cruz injures wrist, to have an MRI Monday
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MINNEAPOLIS -- Nelson Cruz was removed from the Twins' 5-3 loss to the Tigers on Sunday with an unspecified left wrist injury and will undergo an MRI on Monday morning to learn more about the situation and his prognosis.
"Right now we’re kind of in a precautionary [stage], like, let’s make sure we know what we’re dealing with and get him checked out and looked at," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "But I would say these are the things you just want to be careful of. You want to make sure you cover all your bases, check on him in every possible way, make sure we get him looked at."
Cruz said after the game that the wrist had previously been bothering him and felt it more after a swinging strike. He did not recall when exactly the discomfort had started. Cruz showed signs of discomfort after a swing-and-miss on a 2-0 pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning when his left hand came off the bat, after which he was seen visibly flexing the wrist, which continued after subsequent swings.
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The 38-year-old designated hitter took his next at-bat in the sixth inning and grounded out, but was unable to hit in a critical situation in the seventh, when he represented the potential tying run with a pair of runners in scoring position.
"It's painful," Cruz said. "That's the spot you want to be in. But it is what it is."
Cruz is hitting .270/.354/.508 this season with seven homers, nine doubles and 22 RBIs in 35 games as the Twins' designated hitter. He had previously played through left wrist soreness at the end of the 2016 season.
"He’s a guy that knows his body very, very well, so he’s going to be a resource for us to talk to and find out as much as we can about past history and things that he’s dealt with," Baldelli said. "But I think it’s something we’ll be able to work through."