Bergesen: "It was a no-hitter"

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Brad Bergesen pretty much lost a start today. At least he's retained a sense of humor. Bergesen was able to joke with reporters a few minutes ago after returning from a local hospital, where X-rays taken on his right arm were negative. Denard Span's line drive nailed Bergesen on top of his right forearm, exactly halfway between his wrist and elbow. "It's obviously sore right now, but the good news is it's not broken," he said while standing inside the visiting clubhouse at Hammond Stadium. "Tingling going through my arm right now to my fingers. Talking to Richie (Bancells), he said that's completely normal for something like this because the swelling kind of pushes on the nerves. I'm pretty optimistic about it. I don't think it's going to be something that will hold me out for too long. I haven't spoken with Richie about a plan yet, but I don't think it'll be too long." Asked about the disappointment of leaving a game after only four pitches, Bergesen smiled and said, "It was a no-hitter." Actually, it was a perfect game. Take as many positives as you can. "No, it's very disappointing," he said. "My hope coming into today was to get up six times and pitch how I'm capable of pitching, so that part's frustrating, but it's something I can't control, so hopefully I'll get another chance in another X-amount of days." Bergesen said he only caught a quick glimpse of the ball before it slammed off his arm and landed in Robert Andino's glove. "I don't think I even had enough time to get out of the way," he said. "It's just something I'll put behind me and get healthy and get right back up there." Bergesen admitted that he had a flashback to the Billy Butler line drive that hit his shin two years ago. "Oh yeah, we were talking about it on the way when we were getting the x-ray," he said. "I was talking with Dr. (John) Steubs - he took me over there - about how I had one a couple years ago that got me on the leg. But it's not going to hold me back. It's not going to be one of those things when I get back on the mound again, I'm going to be scared or tentative. I'll put it away and go forward with it." Bergesen might seem like the unluckiest pitcher on earth right now, but it could have been much worse today. "The doctor said (Span) hit me in probably the best spot. He said any higher would have been a deep muscle bruise, and that would have caused some damage, and a little bit lower would have been ligaments, and lower than that would have caught the bone flush by itself. He said to get hit in the right arm, that's the best spot," Bergesen said. Bergesen knew after he got inside the clubhouse that he didn't break a bone. "At first, you're kind of in that shock stage, but five minutes later when I was in here getting it checked out, it hurt but I was pretty confident it wasn't broken because of how I was able to move my fingers and everything," he said. Game update: Nolan Reimold homered in the seventh and Andino added an RBI double. Twins 6, Orioles 5.