WASHINGTON - -Orioles manager Dave Trembley is hopeful that his most effective starter, Koji Uehara, won't miss any time with a hamstring injury after leaving the team's 2-1 win against the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.
He's not necessarily leaving it to chance, though.
"I don't think it is serious, but I sure am going to be saying my prayers tonight and hoping it is not," Trembley said after the game. "Because he is so important to us, but we will see how he is [Sunday]."
Uehara left after three innings with soreness in his left hamstring - the same one he strained in spring training that cost him two weeks of preparation. He said this one isn't as serious.
"I have a history of hamstring problems," Uehara said through his interpreter. "It's been a long [relationship] in a sense, so I know when not to go out and pitch."
The 34-year-old right-hander, who is 2-3 with a 4.09 ERA in nine games, said he won't know about the status of his next start until he is re-evaluated Sunday. If he can't pitch, the Orioles will be forced to make their third rotation change in the season's first two months.
"We'd have to adjust," Trembley said. "It would be tough losing a guy of that quality. Every time he goes out there, you count on him keeping the game close and giving you innings."
With the game-time temperature at a humid 82 degrees, Uehara, who pitched much of his Japanese career in a temperature-controlled domed stadium, might have simply suffered dehydration and cramps, Trembley said.
Laboring in every inning he pitched, Uehara failed to cover first base on a grounder to Ty Wigginton that loaded the bases in the third. After the play, Uehara walked around the mound, squatted several times and wiped his brow.
He rallied to get a groundout and end the inning, but he didn't pitch again.
"I saw him in the first inning, after the first inning," Trembley said. "He was pretty flush. He was working real hard and breathing real hard. And I think tonight was a real warm evening for him, real warm. He's not used to that."
An extended injury to Uehara would be tough for a pitching staff that entered Saturday night with the highest ERA in the American League at 5.61.
And, indirectly, to a previously potent offense that has stagnated dramatically, scoring 23 runs in the past eight games.
