Twins’ Pablo López has Grade 2 shoulder strain, expected to miss 2-3 months

WEST SACRAMENTO, CALIF. − Pablo López threw a warmup pitch before the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday night, and then a couple more. Then he stopped and considered all the ways the next few minutes might go. Maybe he would be fine, maybe he would pitch another scoreless inning.

Or maybe not.

“In my head, I’m like, ‘Well, if it feels [sore], if I tried to make a max-effort pitch to get the inning started, who knows what could happen?’ ” the Twins righthander said after a 10-3 victory over the Athletics. “Those split-second scenarios where you start hearing both sides: ‘Oh, just power through it, it’s nothing,’ or, ‘It could be something terrible.’ ”

Prudence prevailed. López called for the trainer, left the game and walked to the clubhouse. And eventually came the news that López and the Twins feared: He strained a muscle in the back of his pitching shoulder.

A more extensive examination Wednesday delivered more bad news. López suffered the same injury that ended Joe Ryan’s season Aug. 7. It’s a Grade 2 strain of the teres major, a muscle that attaches to the scapula in his shoulder.

López will miss 2-3 months, the Twins estimate, meaning, if his recovery goes well, he could pitch again this season.

Righthander David Festa was summoned from Class AAA St. Paul on Wednesday morning and figures to start Thursday’s series finale against the Athletics.

Even before the diagnosis, López sounded resigned to his second stint on the injured list as a Twin.

“Just having an understanding of the [shoulder] area, what goes on back there, it feels like if I were to do a lat pulldown, I would be like, ‘Yeah, that doesn’t feel too good,’ ” he said Tuesday night.

López, who was credited with his fifth victory Tuesday and owns a 2.82 ERA, first felt a tightness behind his shoulder during the fifth inning.

“The [Brent] Rooker at-bat, the second pitch was an 0-1 sinker that kind of sailed on me. Right at the very end, I felt something tighten up on me,” López said.

“The rest of the inning, I felt the same thing. Went into the dugout, and my head started spinning. Like, is this something terrible? Is this something that will go away? Because even though in the past I have dealt with shoulder issues, never in that area.”

Still, Lopez said, his diagnosis “is a little bit of a relief. Obviously, you don’t want to hear anything arm-related, shoulder-related, but … it’s also a relief that I never felt like a big pop or anything. Which, I feel like that’s what could have happened had I been a little more stubborn and tried to pitch that bottom of the sixth inning,” the 29-year-old veteran said.

“It’s not the greatest news to hear, to have to deal with, but if there’s a silver lining, it’s that it wasn’t that posterior cuff or that I didn’t feel anything blowing up.”