HOUSTON — Just as one of the Orioles cornerstone players returned to the lineup, another key player was sidelined in Monday's series opener against the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Even though Adam Jones, who had missed the last two games with a mild left ankle sprain, returned as the team's starting designated hitter, shortstop J.J. Hardy was out Monday with left side soreness.
The Orioles hope they got ahead of the injury, but Hardy admitted he was concerned about the injury. Hardy said the soreness is similar to how a left oblique injury he had in 2011 began. Hardy missed a month (25 games) with that injury.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter wouldn't say that Hardy's injury is an oblique, but admitted it shows some of the signs.
"I am not using that word," Showalter said when asked if Hardy's injury could be an oblique. "It's one of those things you never say out loud. But it has some of those characteristics."
Hardy has played in just 23 games this season. He opened the season on the DL, missing the first month of this season with a left shoulder sprain and also missed time with a lower back sprain.
"I'm just nervous that it's more than a day or two type thing," Hardy said. "I'm just nervous that it might turn into something worse and I don't want it to, so I think resting it is probably the right thing. It's frustrating though. It's the shoulder in the spring, then the back starts acting up. Now it's this and it's just frustrating."
He does tinker with his stance and his swing when he's struggling at the plate, and Hardy -- who is hitting just .190/.209/.274 this season in 84 at bats -- said that too much swinging might be behind the injury. He said he started to feel discomfort on Sunday, and still felt it Monday when he hit off a tee. He didn't take batting practice before Monday's game but did field grounders and did some throwing.
"I've been taking a lot of swings trying to figure out my swing and I think it was somewhere along there," Hardy said. "There wasn't one specific thing that made it go, 'Oh gosh,' and today was a sign that I didn't know if I could play like this.
"I don't know how long it's going to be," Hardy said. "I don't want to shut down everything but definitely don't want to take too many swings and keep irritating it. I want to try to let it heal a little bit. … It's frustrating. I'm trying to find what works and sometimes doing too much is bad. In this case it's slowed me down a little bit."