Semien Will be Ready, Even if He's Unlikely to Play for a Day or Two for Athletics

A sore left side has Oakland Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien out of the starting lineup Friday, the second game in a row that's true after playing in 275 consecutive games. He wants to be ready to come off the bench, even if manager Bob Melvin wants him to just rest and heal.

Marcus Semien spent Friday afternoon walking around with a bat in his hands.

He wasn’t in the Oakland starting lineup, but the A’s shortstop wanted to be ready for whatever happened.

Semien is dealing with pain in his left side that hasn’t been enough to send him to the injured list, but it was enough to force him to bow out of the second game of last Saturday’s doubleheader in Houston, and he wouldn’t have played since then, only no one on the A’s played because the club was shut out of games Sunday through Thursday after pitcher Daniel Mengden tested positive for COVID-19.

The A’s return to the field Friday night against the Padres, but there is no telling when Semien will be available.

Hence the bat. He has taken some swings in the batting cage, and while he hasn’t taken any outright batting practice, the veteran wants to be ready for anything.

“I’ve been doing a lot of work in the weight training room,” Semien said. “This was the first day I’ve hit off the tee and I won’t be taking batting practice on the field, so I doubt I’ll get that at-bat today, but I’m going to prepare like I’m available off the bench, to do whatever they ask me for.

‘Hopefully, during this time it gets better and my confidence gets better with the work I do in the cage. Everything with the MRI and the CT-scan looked pretty good, so it’s just a matter of working out the inflammation and seeing what I can manage.”

Semien can handle a fair amount of pain. He’s had discomfort in the left side before and played through it, but this time the discomfort was more intense, to the point where he felt it was unwise to start the second game Saturday. That meant saying goodbye to a streak of 275 consecutive games played.

“It’s a good thing if Marcus has a bat in his hand,” manager Bob Melvin said. At the same time, Melvin isn’t at all sure the A’s will see their shortstop this weekend against San Diego. In his stead, lefty Vimael Machin and right-hander Chad Pinder will platoon at second base. “If he’s not in the lineup, it means it’s pretty significant for him.

“I went into this series thinking maybe we don’t have him for this series and potentially the next.”

NOTES:

--Pitcher A.J. Puk will get one more outing in the alternate site at San Jose, so the lefty won’t dome off the injured list against the Padres, but more likely against the Astros in a five-game series in Oakland that begins Monday and includes a doubleheader Tuesday.

--Beginning with Friday’s game, the A’s play 26 games in 24 days. That will be the second-most games played by Oakland over a 24-day stretch since 1978, when they had a stretch of 27 games over that period of from July 21-Aug 13.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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