Davis provides injury update

Orioles first baseman Chris Davis walked to his locker after tonight's 5-0 loss to the Royals and had a little fun with the much-anticipated injury update. "Forty-eight to 65 weeks," he said, a familiar grin creasing his face. Davis exited the game after four innings with a strained left oblique, but he didn't seem overly concerned about it. "It's cold right now," he said. "Obviously, came out of the game and got treatment. Watched the rest of the game and got another round of treatment, so we'll see how it feels tomorrow." Davis was grimacing as he swung during his second at-bat against Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura. "It's kind of been a few days," he said. "I think this time of the year, it's early, it's cold outside, the weather's not the most ideal. You're going to have aches and pains. "Tonight, when I started swinging, felt good in the cage before the game, and a couple swings off of Ventura just didn't feel good. At that point, Buck (Showalter) kind of took it out of my hands. Something that we're going to keep an eye on and hopefully not let it get too bad right now. It's too early for that. "We'll know more about it tomorrow. I've never had an oblique strain or whatever you want to call it, but it doesn't feel so bad right now that I can't move or anything like that, so I think right now we'll just take it one day at a time." The cold, damp weather could be a contributing factor. "It's part of it," Davis said. "Obviously, the conditions weren't ideal with the rain and the cold weather. Makes it a little harder to get loose and stay loose. It's part of the things we deal with on a day to day basis. But like I said, we'll take it one day at a time." Showalter didn't allow Davis to plead his case for staying in the game. "There was no asking," Davis said. "He basically said, 'You're done,' so it's probably smart right now. If he had left it up to me, I would have stayed in there. It's probably why he didn't. "If we can get ahead of it right now to make it something that's just a bump in the road as opposed to a big obstacle, it's better off." Davis was bothered in Toronto by tightness in his hips, which could be related to the oblique injury. "I dove a couple times in Boston for a foul ball, dove in Toronto on a turf," Davis said. "There's plays here and there you feel a little beat up and battered, but there's no on specific play or swing or anything like that that I can remember. Just discomfort the past few days." The Orioles will have a better grasp of Davis' status on Saturday and whether he may need to go on the disabled list. In the meantime, they're discussing the possibility of bringing up another position player and returning to a 12-man pitching staff. In that scenario, they could option left-hander T.J. McFarland, who threw 45 pitches tonight in relief of starter Ubaldo Jimenez. "Just felt some pain in the oblique area," Showalter said of Davis. "Not sure. We'll have a good idea about what we have tomorrow, so hopefully we got ahead of it. We'll see. "I started thinking it probably wasn't a good idea to continue. I didn't really ask him and I just told John (Russell) to let him know. I didn't want to take a chance of it getting worse." Davis played in the field in the top of the fourth before exiting the game. "I was watching at first base, move around, and he didn't seem real crisp," Showalter said. "You get to know your players and their body language, and knowing it's not normal. "Everybody on the field, after about two or three days of the season has something going on with them. If I showed you a medical report every day, you wouldn't think we could get nine people on the field sometimes. It's just ... Kansas City's had it, Boston's had it, Toronto's had it. It's just what guys do. You're always trying to judge the severity of it, if it's something that is a real risk for a long-term problem. It's yet to be determined whether it's something that we'll have to make longer range plans. I'll have a better idea tomorrow, I hope. "Until we can judge what stage it is, it's a little premature because he's a well-conditioned strong guy. He's a tough guy. He plays through a lot of things. You take the proper precautions and see where you are in the next couple of days. He's worth waiting on." Showalter knows he's not getting pity around the league if Davis is sidelined. Manny Machado hasn't played a game for the Orioles this season and J.J. Hardy has missed eight with back and hamstring issues. "It's part of the gig," Showalter said. "It's part of the job description that we work through it. That's why we call it a team. Anything you say is a poor reflection on the other people. We have some people capable of doing a good job and Dan (Duquette) and I talked during the game, and had some ideas of what we're going to do and not do and keep our arms around everything. The road trip's been a real tough schedule for everybody. Things will pass. We'll just grind through them." Showalter indicated that another infielder may have been hurt late in the game. "I just had another one as I got off the field," he said, "so we'll see where we are with that one." Meanwhile, teammates are hopeful that Davis' absence is a brief one. "CD is a big, big part of our lineup and part of our plan," said center fielder Adam Jones. "Whatever it is, you just want him to take his time and not rush it because it could be longer. "A big, strong guy like that, I think he wants to rush back. But something like that, it's early in the season, make sure you're 100 percent before you come back on the field." Jones didn't notice that Davis was in pain during the at-bat in the third inning. "He swings hard," Jones said. "It's hard to tell when something's bothering somebody, because something's bothering somebody every single day. You never know what's bothering anybody."