One day after leaving the game in the fourth inning with a right knee injury, Orioles pitcher Jason Hammel is still waiting to get an MRI and that won’t happen until tomorrow.

His mood is not any beter about the situation, he said.

“Not really, I’m frusrated. That is all I can be right now until something positive shows up. It’s just frustrating.

“It is a good thing that there isn’t a lot of swelling, but that just raises more questions for me about what is going on,” Hammel said.

“It’s sore, but until we get an MRI or a picture, I don’t know what is going on. Stairs don’t really feel too good right now. Basically this won’t allow me to pitch right now. Just really sore for right now.”

So for now, it’s still a waiting game for Hammel.

Meanwhile, a few feet away, Nick Markakis was back at his locker today after having surgery on his broken left thumb on Tuesday in Florida.

“They didn’t have to put a (T) plate in,” Markakis said. “There were too many pieces for them to put it back together. So they had to put two pins in, so I’ve got two pins going in through my hand holding the bones back in place and I think it’s three weeks until I get my pins out and we go from there.”

So how does it impact his healing having pins put in rather than a T-plate?

“I won’t be able to move it. If I had a plate in there I would be able to get some movement going. But with the pins, I have to wait for them to get out. So I have to wait three weeks for that and then progressively start doing stuff.”

Markakis said this should not change the timetable for his healing and or his time frame to return for the better or worse.

“No, I think overall the healing rate is about the same time,” Markakis said. “Now I don’t have to wait for an incision to heal. It’s just two little tiny holes where the pins went in. When I get the pins out, they might or might not put me in a splint for a week or so. We’ll see. It’s all going to be three or four weeks.

“I’m about the same right now (in terms of my optimism to get back this year). It’s all about how I heal. I’ll see the doctor again when we are down there for that Tampa series. He’ll check me out again and I’ll probably know a lot more then.”

Markakis will stay with the Orioles, travel with them on the upcoming road trip and lend whatever help and/or support he can without being able to play.

“Once you are around the guys for eight months, you bond together and you are here for each other,” Markakis said. “I’ll be with them. It will be like any other day, I just won’t be playing. But I’ll be in the dugout supporting them. I’m part of this team but almost kind of a fan now. It will be tough but fun at the same time.”



