Hamstrings and Obliques

Andre Ethier aggravates his oblique injury today.(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

When Andre Ethier was removed in the first inning from the final game at San Francisco last Wednesday with an oblique injury, I knew it would be bad.  The thing is with oblique injuries, you just have to let them heal.   Baseball activities simply aggravate them if you aren’t fully healed.

It appears that the Dodgers desperation to get their best players back has bit them hard as Andre Ethier was shut down today after “felling something” while taking a swing at a ball off of a tee.

This is not good.  If I were a betting man, I’d put odds on this being a setback and that Ethier’s return to action may be delayed for a couple of weeks.  Talk today is that they will be putting him on the D.L. retroactive to last week and bring up Mark Ellis real soon.

Meanwhile with Ethier unavailable and Juan Uribe on the shelf for another game after turning an ankle.  The Dodgers will only have four position players available tonight against the Reds, (Treanor, Hairston, Herrera and Van Slyke).  For a team that is having offensive issues, going in short against one of the better teams in the league doesn’t make things look good.

AP Photo

So between hamstring injuries this year with DeJesus, Rivera and Kemp and the oblique with Ethier, the Dodgers have been cursed with what I believe are the trendy baseball injuries of the past decade.  I had never even heard of the “Oblique” injury until Dave Roberts came up with one while hitting a home run in a late season at bat about 10 years ago.  He put so much into his swing that the muscles gave way on his side.

Since then other Dodgers that have been hampered with that injury that I can think of off the top of my head are Jeff Kent, Chad Billingsley, John Garland, and Dioner Navarro.

Both injuries (hamstrings and obliques) simply require healing time.  As the Dodgers flounder to stay afloat, time seems to be something that they don’t have.  But today we are only at the 1/2 way point of the season, and if the Giants lose as I think they will (down 8-2 in a rain delayed 7th inning in Washington), the Dodgers will be down 1 game in the standings.  Time is not running out.  If they can just hold serve and stay within striking distance until the big guns come back and some possible trade deadline deal is made, there is still a chance for them to make a run at this thing.

The teams performance has been at a deplorable level the last three weeks, but this thing isn't over yet if they can weather through these injuries.  With 6 games left before the All Star break, we can all hold our breath.