Rays/MLB

Baldelli prepared to return tonight

The centerfielder's hamstring injury has healed enough to allow him to play, though the Rays plan to be cautious with him.

By MARC TOPKIN
Published August 8, 2006

SEATTLE - Centerfielder Rocco Baldelli's on and off again return to the Devil Rays lineup from a right hamstring injury is on - again - for tonight, unless something really unusual happens.

"Outside of me falling out of my bed and hurting my hamstring worse, I think I'll be in there," Baldelli said. "And I have bars on each side of the bed and on the end just in case."

Baldelli's joking manner after batting practice Monday might have spoken as much about his return as anything he said. Having not played since Wednesday and, due to the frustrating nature of the injury, having been unable to set a definitive return date or test it fully in drills, Baldelli is willing to play tonight with hopes there are no further problems.

"In my first (at-bat) I'll probably hit a ground ball to shortstop, and I'll be able to tell by how it feels after I run to first base," he said. "Most of the time it's just how I feel in the game and when I actually get some adrenaline and sweat going. ... It's going to be pretty much me feeling it out and getting out there and playing, and hopefully it feels good when I wake up the next day."

Baldelli on Monday afternoon told manager Joe Maddon "if he needed me to go today I would have went," but Maddon and bench coach Bill Evers had already decided that after the long flight to Seattle, they would rather give him one more day to work out without playing.

Having been short-handed since Wednesday, the Rays would have had to decide in the next few days - certainly by Thursday's off day - whether to put Baldelli on the disabled list.

"We're going to reach a point in talking to Rocco and (trainers Ron Porterfield and Paul Harker) where we're going to have to make a decision one way or the other," executive vice president Andrew Friedman said. "We haven't come up with what day that is exactly, but it's certainly something that is challenging and an issue that's going to confront us very quickly."

Even if Baldelli gets through tonight's game with no problems, his playing time is likely to be limited. Maddon said he will likely hold Baldelli out of Wednesday's afternoon game and go back to the schedule he used when Baldelli first came off the disabled list of not using him in day games after night games.

[Last modified August 8, 2006, 06:00:02]