In the minutes after he struck out for the third time to end Friday night's loss to the Detroit Tigers, Mike Cameron sat at his locker with a massive bag of ice wrapped around his midsection. He calmly answered questions about a game that also saw him lose a fly ball off his glove, and he looked to be in pain after the play.
Three days later, Cameron has been placed on the 15-day disabled list in a move the team hopes will give him enough rest to potentially save his season. If the DL stint does not help his abdominal issues to improve, season-ending surgery would be the next option.
"Right now giving him the time off, maybe he does feel better and maybe we can postpone the surgery," manager Terry Francona said. "He really wants to play."
Cameron said he has not been frustrated by the injury-plagued campaign but instead has been gratified with his effort to get on the field as much as possible. It's simply become a tad too difficult to do so in the past week.
"I've been going about as hard as I possibly can," Cameron said. "My body is telling me to give it a break."
This is Cameron's second trip to the DL. Since returning in late May, he has required occasional days off to recover, but the grind seemed to get to him a bit more during the Red Sox' recent 10-game road trip. He missed the finale of the trip in Anaheim.
"He had a stretch where he was swinging the bat and moving, then there were days when he couldn't get going and we wouldn't play him," Francona said. "Then there was a couple of days he was having a hard time bouncing back, coming off the road trip.
"I think there were times when he was willing himself to be out there and help us win."
Cameron, 37, said there has not been a single day that he has awoken without some degree of pain in the mid-section. Francona said that lately the pain has been spreading a bit, bothering Cameron in the groin and in a larger area of the abdomen.
The pain has mostly affected Cameron's ability to run, he said. On the recent trip his swing began to feel the effects as well, the bat flying out of the zone on some cuts.
The loss of Cameron, two days after the club failed to make a move for an outfielder at the trade deadline but did call up promising prospect Ryan Kalish, makes the impending return of Jacoby Ellsbury that much more important.
Ellsbury remains on a rehab assignment at Pawtucket and will play there again Tuesday, after which his status will be updated. Entering Monday night's game with Cleveland, the Red Sox' outfield rotation consisted of J.D. Drew, Darnell McDonald, Eric Patterson, Daniel Navaand Kalish.
That rotation could last a few more days until Ellsbury is back and Cameron remains hopeful that he can be playing again in two weeks or so. But if and when the veteran center fielder does come back he will continue to have to take it day-by-day, just as has for most of the season.
"We'll just see how these two weeks go," he said.
