Mancini offers positive update on finger injury

CHICAGO - Orioles outfielder Trey Mancini expects to get back into the lineup Tuesday night against the White Sox.

Mancini left Saturday's game in Minnesota in the first inning after being hit on the right index finger and he sat out yesterday's 4-1 loss.

His day-to-day status extends to tonight's series opener, but it's nearing an end.

"It feels better than yesterday. I think I'm good to go tomorrow," Mancini said.

"I'm not 100 percent and I kind of learned not to go out there if you're going to compromise or anything. I don't want to do that. But with the improvement from yesterday to today, if it's like that, the improvement from today to tomorrow is the same, I'll be 100 percent good to go."

Mancini considers himself fortunate that the finger only cost him a couple of games. He thought the injury was much worse than a bruise after reaching on a single and exiting.

"Extremely," he said. "I'm not going to lie. When it happened I thought it was broken. I was pretty surprised when the X-ray came back negative and very relieved, obviously. But I knew it would probably take a couple of days at least.

"Fingers can be a pretty delicate thing unfortunately and yeah, I feel very lucky that it's not broken and I can be back in there tomorrow."

Mancini had the wrap removed from his finger as he stood at his locker, but it was taped again later in the afternoon. Just airing it out a little bit.

The Orioles lost their best hitter with Mancini's removal from the lineup.

Mancini is batting .355/.405/.618 and his 39 hits lead the American League. His hitting streak reached nine games with Saturday's painful single and he's 15-for-35 (.429) during that stretch.

Could the bat cool off while Mancini sits?

"We've had off-days this year, too, so it's not anything I'm concerned about at all," he said. "I hadn't even really thought about that. I'm just ready to get back in there."

Meanwhile, the Orioles announced that reliever Nate Karns has been removed from his injury rehab assignment at Double-A Bowie and returned to the injured list. He's been sidelined with discomfort in his right forearm.

Karns made one appearance with the Baysox and allowed two runs and two hits in one inning. He lasted only two-thirds of an inning in his only appearance at Triple-A Norfolk before returning to Baltimore to have his forearm examined again.