Rocco Baldelli said he could envision a scenario where he would let a player play in all 162 games of the regular season. But, the Twins manager added, it would take a “very special, unique” player.

Could that be Willi Castro?

The Twins’ versatile utilityman had appeared in the team’s first 74 games before getting a day of rest on Thursday. That lasted until the eighth inning, when he entered the game to pinch hit for Trevor Larnach.

Castro had started in 70 of 74 games to begin the season. In the other four games, he appeared later as a replacement. Before Thursday, the last game Castro did not start came on April 15.

“He recovers great,” Baldelli said. “He takes care of himself great, but there was going to be a day where it was coming.”

The manager said he talked to Castro on Wednesday night about taking a day off but didn’t actually tell him which day it was going to be.

While it’s unlikely he’ll go the entire season without a full day off, should he stay healthy, it’s possible that Castro sets a new record of most games played in a season for the Twins with Baldelli at the helm. The fact that he is a switch hitter who can appear at multiple positions certainly helps his case.

Currently, Jorge Polanco holds that distinction, playing in 153 games for the 2019 Twins. Last season, no Twin played in more games than Carlos Correa, who appeared in 135 of 162.

“The harder you play, the more intensity you play with, the more explosive you are on the field, both offensively and defensively, the harder it is to stay out there,” Baldelli said. “That’s a fact. That’s part of it. And the guys that run hard all the time and are playing in the middle-of-the-diamond positions and diving all over the field and sprinting constantly, it’s really hard. It’s hard to play 150 games, you know? 162 is really something.”

After Baldelli got done speaking about how impressive — and nearly impossible it was — to play 162 games these days, he turned to Twins legend Justin Morneau to ask him if he had ever done it.

“163,” Morneau responded.

Scoreboard fixed

The entire ribbon board in left field was up and running on Thursday afternoon, a day after Royce Lewis busted a section of it with a home run ball.

The board displayed an image of two Band-Aids crossed in an X and read, “Don’t worry, Royce. We fixed it!”

“If I had to pay for that, that would be a lot,” Lewis said on Wednesday night.

Thursday, the Twins posted a picture of the third baseman smiling in front of the repaired board. Lewis said he noticed a section of the board was out on Wednesday night, but he didn’t realize that it had come from his home run.

“I was thinking, ‘Man, they have to be really (ticked) off that it’s not working,’ ” he said.

Briefly

Austin Martin got his first major league start at second base on Thursday. … The Twins will head to the Oakland Coliseum one last time for a three-game series over the weekend. Chris Paddack is on tap to start Friday night.