Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 05, 2006
Pain in the Back

Carlos Zambrano didn't just have a bad outing yesterday, he had a bad back:

In the last two seasons, Carlos Zambrano has left games early with back pain, a blister on his finger, tennis elbow and an injured big left toe.

For the most part, the Cubs ace has puffed his chest out, showed his macho, shrugged off those injuries and proclaimed he would make his next start.

He always did.

So it might be cause for concern that Monday -- the first time in 2006 that Zambrano left a game because of injury -- he not only kicked aside the tough-guy act, but requested an MRI for this morning after feeling back stiffness and spasms.

The 25-year-old Cy Young Award hopeful left Monday's game -- a 5-4 loss to Pittsburgh in front of a Wrigley Field crowd of 39,868 -- in the second inning.

"It feels better after they iced me," Zambrano said after the game. "But I'll have an MRI and we'll see what will happen after that. We'll talk about what could happen. We'll see if they stop me for the year. I don't know. We'll see."

Stopping him for the year would certainly take him out of the Cy Young race, although Chris Carpenter may be doing that all by himself.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:59 AM | Injuries | TrackBack (0)
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