"Twins first baseman Justin Morneau will have his sore left wrist checked out when he arrives at Target Field on Thursday.

He's been trying to ignore the pain, playing with it tightly wrapped. He said the wrist swells up "whenever I use it." He said he hurt his wrist sometime during the last homestand.

When asked how his neck and shoulder were doing, he said, "It is what it is,'' but he gets daily treatment for soreness in that area.

Morneau hopes his wrist can be treated with a cortisone shot. If so, he wants to take the shot after Sunday's game, enjoy Monday's off day then play Tuesday against the White Sox at Target Field.

"That's the whole point," he said, "so we don't miss any games."

The Twins have used the disabled list 13 times this season, a group Morneau doesn't want to join. It's hard to believe he's coming off a concussion that forced him out of the lineup for the second half of last season.

He's gone from being extra careful with his offseason concussion recovery to fighting to stay in the lineup. He took two days off last weekend to rest his wrist and a pinched nerve in his neck that affects his left shoulder.

Morneau was the DH on Wednesday, with Luke Hughes playing first base.

When Twins manager Ron Gardenhire informed Morneau of his plans before the game, Morneau was getting his muscles loose in the whirlpool.

"I said, 'You're DH-ing,' and I left before he even answered," Gardenhire said. "He looked like Dean Martin in an old Western movie.""