TAMPA, Fla. -- The piece of a broken bat, already signed by Yankees designated hitter Hideki Matsui, sat inside Glen Perkins' locker after his start on Sunday afternoon.

Not that Perkins really needed a reminder of getting struck in the leg by the lumber. He had a nice big charley horse on his right calf for that.

"It felt like getting shot with a paintball, except a softball-sized paintball," Perkins said. "It stung way more than you think it would."

Perkins is fine, besides some stiffness and a little pain in his calf, even after getting hit by Matsui's bat in the third inning.

As the Yankees slugger broke his bat on a groundout, a piece of it caught Perkins solidly in the back of the leg. The pitcher said he saw the bat breaking and was trying to avoid getting hit, but the wood shard managed to catch him anyway.

"My athleticism is not quite where it needs to be yet," Perkins joked afterward. "I mean, that one misses me in the season."

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and the training staff ran out on the field to check on Perkins after he fell to the ground in pain. But he managed to limp off the field on his own -- although not before grabbing the piece of bat as a souvenir.

"It's my first signed bat," Perkins said.

On the day, the Twins southpaw gave up three runs on five hits in three innings against the Yankees. Perkins would have likely pitched another inning if not for being struck by the bat. But Gardenhire said the team wasn't about to take any risks with him, especially since there is nearly three weeks of Spring Training remaining.

"After getting hit, there is no sense in messing around with that," Gardenhire said. "That was enough."

Perkins' line may not have shown it, but both the pitcher and the coaching staff felt his Sunday outing was an improvement over his previous start. With most of his trouble coming on a couple of broken-bat hits and some ground balls that found holes, Perkins said that he felt good about how he pitched overall.

"[Catcher Mike] Redmond probably said it best," Perkins said. "He said that was the best pitching performance he's seen with the worst luck. ... I threw all of my pitches and got outs with all of my pitches. So I think it's a good one to build off."

As for his leg, Perkins reiterated that he was fine and was not concerned about it affecting his next start, which is expected to take place on Friday against the Yankees at Hammond Stadium.

"It shouldn't hold me back on anything," Perkins said.