By Joe Smith, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, April 2, 2011
ST. PETERSBURG — Rays third baseman Evan Longoria said his left oblique muscle first started to bother him in the batting cage early Saturday afternoon.
Longoria, who had gone 0-for-4 in Friday night's opener, wanted to get some extra work in, but the more swings he took, "the more sore I got." He said he probably shouldn't have even played Saturday night but wanted to test it during the game and be there for his teammates.
But now the Rays will be without Longoria indefinitely with a sore left oblique. Longoria, who pulled himself out of Saturday's 3-1 loss to Baltimore after the fifth inning, said he expects to be gone no more than a week, but manager Joe Maddon didn't rule out a stint on the 15-day disabled list, saying the team will be cautious and re-evaluate Longoria today.
"It just (stinks)," Longoria said. "You prepare for a whole season and the second game something like this happens."
On the first swing of his first at-bat, he knew something was wrong. "You can't really simulate a game speed swing in batting practice," he said. "It was just sore."
Longoria walked in the first inning and raced to his left to help turn a double play in the fourth. He flied out in the bottom half and played defense in the fifth before telling Maddon he needed to come out.
"I was aware of it early and I saw him stretching and moving and turning and thought, 'Well, maybe he might be okay,' " Maddon said. "But finally, when a player tells you that he knows he needs to be taken out of the game, especially him, we're just going to be cautious with it."
Said Longoria: "I just didn't want to come out. I like to be in the game. It's one of those things where it was probably a selfish play on my part not to come out in the third or whatever after my first at-bat. But I just hate leaving my teammates out there on the field."
Longoria has never had an oblique injury but believes it occurred due to the accumulation of the hitting he has been doing. "I like to hit a lot, and so probably fatigued it enough to where it just says, 'I've had enough,' " he said.
Joe Smith can be reached at joesmith@sptimes.com.