MINNEAPOLIS -- Twins second baseman James Dozier was held out of Saturday's lineup against the White Sox with a sore right knee suffered in Friday's game, but an MRI exam came back clean and Dozier is expected to return on Sunday.
Dozier said the injury occurred while he was getting out of the box on a groundout to second in the seventh inning. He said he wasn't sure if the rainy conditions caused him to twist his knee, but he felt it while running halfway up the line. He remained in the game but received the precautionary MRI on Saturday to make sure it wasn't serious.
"Knee feels good," Dozier said. "Good results. I got it looked at [Saturday] morning. There's just some swelling in there. But no damage or anything, which is a relief. They're just trying to get that swelling out of there. It's just at the top of my knee cap."
Dozier said he felt good enough to play on Saturday, but the Twins wanted to be careful with him, giving him his first day off of the season.
"It's just the timing of everything today," Dozier said. "Definitely available, and I'll be in there tomorrow."
Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey noted that Dozier also had several diving plays in the game, including a diving stop up the middle and a headfirst slide into third while trying to stretch a double into a triple. They could've contributed to the injury, but Dozier said he didn't feel anything until coming out of the box in his last at-bat.
"We just wanted to be safe than sorry so we wanted to get it checked," Falvey said. "It's just a knee contusion or something along those lines. Knowing Brian, he'll say he's ready to go and wants to play but we'll give him a day and go from there."