Twins’ playoff hopes disappear with Morneau injury
Entering play Tuesday, the Minnesota Twins are 5.5 games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers in the AL Central, but the Twins’ season basically ended when first baseman and MVP candidate Justin Morneau’s did.
Minnesota got the news on Monday that a CT scan revealed that Morneau has a stress fracture in his lower back and is done for the year. Morneau has been bothered by a sore back for about a month.
Morneau, the 2006 MVP, is hitting .274 with 30 home runs and 100 RBIs but his average has declined since near the end of July. He hit .220 in August and was batting just .077 (3-for-39) in September. He said it hurt most when he swung and missed.
“I think I was doing more harm than good to the team and myself by going out there,” he said. “So I figured maybe it was time to get it looked at and find out if maybe there was more going in there.”
Recovery for Morneau is expected to take three months, and he has been instructed by doctors to not do any running or heavy lifting during that time – but he should be fine for spring training. Morneau added that he won’t need surgery.
Manager Ron Gardenhire said Michael Cuddyer will play first base in Morneau’s place. Cuddyer is hitting .273 with 25 home runs and 75 RBIs.
“It’s not the time to mourn,” Cuddyer said. “We can’t say we’re done because we lost (Morneau). We’ve got to keep plugging away, and he’s going to be here cheering us on as hard as anybody.”
The Twins do have seven games left with the Tigers this season, but barring a miraculous sweep or something, the season is over for Minnesota – which probably won’t have injured third baseman Joe Crede for the rest of the year, either. Crede was activated from the DL last week but managed to start only one game before the back flared up.
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