Joe Ryan pulled his groin stretching before a game in Atlanta at the end of June, but he didn't inform the Twins' training staff about his injury until after his start Wednesday. That was the game when Ryan allowed five home runs, including four in the first inning, of a 6-2 loss.

Ryan was placed on the 15-day injured list Thursday, as the Twins called up former Cy Young Award-=winner Dallas Keuchel to take his spot in the starting rotation.

"I was trying to do it on my own," Ryan said. "Didn't probably take the best routes to notifying everyone. I just tried to work through some stuff for a while. Thought I was getting there, and it just kept bugging me."

Ryan, who lost to the Cardinals on Wednesday while giving up four more home runs, owns an 8.63 ERA over his past seven starts. He's had some velocity dips over the past month, but still struck out 52 batters in his last 32⅓ innings.

He said he felt discomfort in his groin when he tried to throw pitches at the bottom of the strike zone.

"The communication on this certainly has to be better and he knows that," said Baldelli, who noted he and the training staff have daily check-ins with players.

Why didn't Ryan bring up his groin pain to the training staff?

"Kind of being in shock pregame and not knowing what to do in that situation being the first time that something like that's happened to me," Ryan said.