"Joakim Soria flashed a grin Friday afternoon as he walked through the Royals' clubhouse toward the door leading to the Metrodome playing surface.

"Good," he said and emphasized the point with thumbs-up sign.

It's good indeed if the Royals have their All-Star closer available again for this weekend's three-game series against the Minnesota Twins. Too bad they had no chance to test his recovery in Friday's 7-5 loss.

So he got an extra day of rest.

That test, of course, won't come until Soria sees whether his sore right shoulder can handle the full-speed urgency while warming up in the bullpen _ and then display his Mexicutioner efficiency once he enters the game.

But his evident confidence is nonetheless encouraging.

"After all he's been through," manager Trey Hillman said, "if he feels anything at all, he's going to tell us."

Soria has made only one appearance in the last 18 days - a rocky one-inning save April 22 at Cleveland when he protected a 2-0 victory by working around a walk and a single.

Hillman and the Royals tried to keep Soria's ailing shoulder a secret until April 24, when they announced he would be unavailable for several days in hopes that rest would cure the problem.

That came one day after a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam showed no structural damage. Fortunately, perhaps, the Royals faced only one save situation in their just-completed, seven-game homestand.

"Thankfully, the offense came to life when it did," Hillman said. "That helped. A lot. It kept us from playing tighter games.""