Boone placed on 15-day DL

By Joe Conroy

Published: July 10, 2008

WASHINGTON — It was an embarrassing way to get injured and Aaron Boone’s teammates weren’t going to let him forget it.
Answering questions from the media before Thursday night’s series finale against Arizona, Boone was getting teased by Nick Johnson and Austin Kearns from their respective lockers about how the infielder ended up on the 15-day disabled list with a left calf strain for the first time this year.
“Tell them the truth,” Kearns shouted with a laugh.
“Running out to pinch run,” Boone answered, trying to hold back a smile. Boone suffered the injury July 7 at Cincinnati when he was replacing Dmitri Young at first base.
All joking aside, Boone said the injury was one of the strangest he’s ever experienced.
“It hurt right away and I thought it was a cramp at first,” he said. “Now I just want to get it right.”
Boone, 35, was hitting .258 with five home runs and 17 RBI in 71 games.
The move, which includes recalling infielder Pete Orr from Triple-A Columbus, was made retroactive to Sunday with the All-Star break approaching next week, meaning Boone could be available by either the Atlanta series or in San Francisco.
“We’ve been short a couple of days and we’re not anticipating him getting any better before the All-Star break,” manager Manny Acta said. “It’s delicate because it’s a calf so anytime you try to sprint or try to push off you feel it.”
Acta said Orr, who was hitting .275 with 33 RBI in 73 games, would likely not be at the ballpark in time for the start of last night’s game but would arrive in time to be used off the bench if necessary.
Former Potomac National Kory Casto was slated to start the game at third base.
ZIM SLOWLY IMPROVING
Once again injured third baseman Ryan Zimmerman took a solo round of batting practice and participated in infield practice, working his way back from the slightly torn labrum that has kept him sidelined since May 18.
General Manager Jim Bowden is pleased with the progress Zimmerman has made recently and envisions a rehab stint in the minors very soon.
“He had a very good day again today,” Bowden said. “No problems with the bat, he looks great in the field. I’m hoping that he can go on and rehab by early next week.”
Acta, however, was at best cautiously optimistic about when Zimmerman, who was hitting .257 with eight homers and 27 RBI when he was injured, could begin participating in games at any level.
“He has to slow down,” Acta said. “He’s got to make sure he’s ready to go first. We all know that he is ready to play, but he’s got to take his time and make sure he’s ready to start his rehab. We don’t have a date for that, yet.”
With that said, Acta liked what he saw from the franchise player in the pregame workouts and added that Zimmerman may be ready for the next part of his recuperation.
“He looked really good today. We’ll move to the next phase tomorrow which will be flipping him some breaking balls during his extra hitting.
“We’ll do that for a couple of days before making a decision (on a rehab assignment).”