The Minnesota Twins placed pitcher Pablo López on the 15-day injured list Friday with a strained right hamstring.

The move is retroactive to Wednesday, a day after López was removed from his start against Kansas City following 4 2/3 innings because of the injury. López is 1-1 with a 1.62 ERA in three starts this season.

"As of now, when I say mild, we think it's very mild," manager Rocco Baldelli said after Tuesday's game. 

Baldelli said they decided to pull López to prevent the injury from getting worse, and that the pitcher looked "efficient and great" before getting hurt.

"He looked like he was really building on that last start that he had in a really nice fashion," Baldelli said.

The Twins replaced him on the roster by recalling right-hander David Festa from Triple-A St. Paul. Festa, who will start for Minnesota on Friday night against Detroit, is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in two minor league starts this season.

Festa appeared in 14 games for the Twins last season, 13 of them starts, going 2-6 with a 4.90 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 64 1/3 innings.