Rodriguez May Be Out Until After All-Star Break
The pain finally told Alex Rodriguez what the Seattle Mariners had suspected for a week - that their 21-year-old shortstop wasn’t ready to play and wouldn’t be in the immediate future.
“When I woke up, it was there,” Rodriguez said Friday of the pain from a bruise deep in his chest that has sidelined him since June 11. “I can field, I can throw, but I can’t swing.”
Though they had been hoping that Rodriguez’ history of quick healing would get him back in the lineup this weekend, the Mariners gave up on that notion and placed him on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to June 12.
“We could get him back in a week to 10 days,” manager Lou Piniella said, “or we might not get him back until after the All-Star break. The key is to give him time to heal, because my experience with these type of injuries is that if you come back too soon you can make it worse and lose a player for twice as long.”
Rodriguez was hurt in Toronto when, as he slid across home plate, he was kneed high on the left rib cage by pitcher Roger Clemens. Rodriguez hasn’t played since, though the pain had been lessening.
“It felt like a knife the first day, and day by day I felt a little better,” he said. “My experience with this kind of injury was zero, so maybe I expected too much too soon.”
After swinging a bat in San Francisco, Rodriguez took light batting practice in Texas on Thursday, swinging about 60-70 percent of normal. He was to do the same thing Friday, but when he awakened, he knew he’d been kidding himself.
“It was there when I swung, and it was there this morning,” Rodriguez said.
Journeyman Alvaro Espinoza will continue to start in Rodriguez’ spot, but he began the night Friday batting .196. Only one other player on Seattle’s roster, Brent Gates, can play the position.
Notes
Professional golfer Mark O’Meara was a clubhouse visitor, along with his young son, Shawn, who spent much of the afternoon watching video with Ken Griffey Jr. They were studying Griffey’s swing - Shawn asking questions about each pitch on the tape, Junior standing and tinkering with his hands, his stance, his swing. O’Meara is an off-season neighbor of Griffey’s in Orlando, Fla. … With Rodriguez on the disabled list, the Mariners will activate left-handed pitcher Greg McCarthy tonight and return to an 11-man pitching staff. … Joey Cora was credited with a third-inning single, although he was thrown out at first base while heading for the dugout. Confused? So was Cora. He lined a ball into left field and Rusty Greer caught it with a dive, only to have the ball jarred loose when he hit the grass. Cora never saw the ball come loose, so he trotted to the dugout - and Greer threw him out at first.