J.J. Hardy on his health: "Not concerned at all"

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

August 23, 2015, 7:21am

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Orioles manager Buck Showalter stayed with his plan for today to not start J.J. Hardy at shortstop. He'll get the day off, at least at the beginning of today's game against the Minnesota Twins.

Hardy has been bothered for a few days by a sore left groin, but he said he expects to start tomorrow in Kansas City.

"Not concerned at all," he said. "Played yesterday and it actually feels better today, so I think that is a really good sign. I never really did anything to it. It was just kind of sore for a couple of days. Nothing that I was concerned about. Then two nights ago was when it really started getting more sore."

Hardy drove in a run last night, but he is 0-for-11 his last four games and 4-for-48 (.083) over his last 14 games to drop his average on the season to .220 and .145 in 19 games this month.

But he won't blame his offensive falloff on his groin injury or anything else he has had to deal with this season.

"I'm not going to make an excuse. Like we always talk about, everyone in here is dealing with something. So I just have to swing the bat better, simple as that," he said.

Maybe Hardy's plate appearance in the sixth inning last night will help get his bat going. He worked the count to 3-2 and then, on the ninth pitch, delivered a sac fly to right with the bases loaded to provide the Orioles a 2-1 lead.

"It was good. It felt good. I haven't been feeling great in the box. At least that at-bat I felt much better and felt like I made some adjustments and things to kind of work off of from that at-bat. So, it was good."