CLEVELAND, Ohio -- All right, it's time to knock this stuff off.

Shin-Soo Choo, the hero of Tuesday's 7-5 victory over Seattle in the first game of a day night doubleheader, was swinging in the batting cage before Wednesday's game when he felt soreness in his left side. He was scratched from a already depleted Indians lineup just before game time on Wednesday.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but when a hitter says his side hurts, that's usually an oblique injury. Translated: significant downtime.

The Indians already have too many players in that category. Travis Hafner is waiting to see if his season is over because of a damaged right foot. Michael Brantley can't swing a bat because of a sore right wrist and will be re-evaluated Friday. Grady Sizemore, who took 15 minutes of batting practice before Wednesday's game, has been on the disabled list since July 18 with a bruised right knee. After putting him on the DL, the Indians threw in a hernia operation just for kicks.

Sizemore says he'll be back sometime in September. We'll see about that.

In Wednesday afternoon's lineup Carlos Santana, Matt LaPorta and Jack Hannahan were the only Indians who were in the opening day lineup on April 1. Asdrubal Cabrera got the day off before he fell over from exhaustion. Hafner, Brantley and Choo were injured. Orlando Cabrera was traded to San Francisco and Austin Kearns was released.

Help needed: The Indians, tumbling out of the AL Central race faster than the stock market is crashing, might not need a hitter to stay in the race. But they may need a hitter just to finish the season.

Jim Thome and Jason Kubel of the Twins cleared waivers today. ESPN is reporting that they were both claimed, but the claiming teams were not named. It's believed the Indians and Chicago could have put in claims on both players.

The problem is that the White Sox have a worse record than the Tribe. That would give them the right to negotiate a deal with the Twins for Thome or Kubel or perhaps both. They would have 48 hours to work a deal.

Kubel is a free agent at the end of the year and would look good in an Indians uniform for the last month of the season if not longer. He'll probably be a Type B free agent, so the Twins would want a decent player back because they could get draft picks if they kept him and didn't offer him arbitration this winter.

Oakland's Hideki Matsui has already cleared waivers and could help as a left-handed DH.

Thome and Matsui have about the same money left on their one-year deals, between $600,000 and $900,000. Kubel has over $1 million left on his contract.

Here are the lineups for today's game.

Mariners (55-73): RF Ichiro Suzuki (L), SS Brendan Ryan (R), 2B Dustin Ackley (L), 1B Mike Carp (L), LF Casper Wells (R), C Miguel Olivo (R), 3B Kyle Seager (L), DH Wily Mo Pena (R), RF Trayvon Robinson (S), RHP Felix Hernandez (11-11, 3.38).

Indians (63-63): CF Ezequiel Carrera (L), 2B Cord Phelps, C Carlos Santana (S), LF Shelley Duncan (R), RF Kosuke Fukudome (L), DH Lonnie Chisenhall (L), 1B Matt LaPorta (R), 3B Jack Hannahan (L), SS Jason Donald (L), RHP Josh Tomlin (12-6, 4.03).

Umpires: H Bill Miller, 1B Phil Cuzzi, 2B Tom Hallion, 3B James Hoye.

Lefty-righty: Lefties are hitting .257 (83-for-323) with 12 homers and righties are hitting .220 (63-for-286) with 11 homers against Tomlin. Seattle had five lefties, including one switch hitter, in the lineup.

Lefties are hitting .234 (92-for-393) with five homers and righties are hitting .244 (80-for-328) with 11 homers against Hernandez. The Indians have five right-handers, including two switch-hitters.

Him vs. me: Hannahan is hitting .500 (6-for-12) against Hernandez. Suzuki is 2-for-6 with a double against Tomlin.

Quote of the day: They say anything can happen in a short series. I just didn't expect it to be that short," Hall of Fame manager Al Lopez after his 1954 Indians were swept in the World Series by the New York Giants.

Next: Indians have an off day before Kansas City arrives for a three-game series on Friday.