NEW YORK — When Joe Crede's back started bothering him Friday night and his hamstrings began to cramp up, the third baseman quickly decided he needed to leave the Minnesota Twins' game against the New York Yankees.

After all, he's been through this before.

Crede was feeling better Saturday after taking some muscle relaxants and getting treatment before the second game of Minnesota's four-game series at New York. But he isn't sure when he'll be able to return to the lineup.

"This is just more spasms and stuff like that," said Crede, who has a history of back problems. "It just comes and goes and whenever it comes you've got to take a step back because that could lead into something even worse. It's like I said before: It's always a good sign when there's no sharp pains back there."

Crede was replaced by Brendan Harris before the Yankees came to the plate in the bottom of the fifth on Friday. He had some trouble with a couple of balls hit down the line before he departed.

"It just kept progressively getting worse throughout the game," Crede said.

Brian Buscher started at third on Saturday and manager Ron Gardenhire said he would only consider asking Crede to play in an emergency.

"We'll know more in a couple days," Gardenhire said. "If he gets through today, we'll see how he feels tomorrow. Maybe Monday night, possibility of him playing Monday night, but we've just got to see."

Crede signed a one-year contract with Minnesota in February after spending his entire career with the Chicago White Sox. The 31-year-old has had two major back surgeries in the last two seasons.

Crede hit .248 with 17 homers and 55 RBIs in his final year with the White Sox. But the All-Star played sparingly in the second half because of recurring back trouble, which limited him to 47 games in 2007.

"He's got to get well," Gardenhire said. "Back spasms and stuff like that, sore hammys, that's all attached and that's not the area we want to get to too often."

It was a tough break for Crede, who was coming off a big series against the Detroit Tigers. He hit a game-ending grand slam in the 13th inning of the Twins' 14-10 win on Wednesday and a go-ahead two-run single Thursday to help Minnesota complete the three-game sweep with a 6-5 victory.

Crede had two homers and eight RBIs in the series against Detroit, and is batting .232 with five homers and 15 RBIs in 27 games this season.

"You're always going to hit some wall somewhere," he said. "But you just keep your head up and keep moving along and deal with what happens and stay positive about everything."