Football
Associated Press 17y

Astros put Lidge on DL with pulled oblique muscle

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Houston Astros placed closer Brad
Lidge on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday night because of a pulled
oblique muscle in his left side.

"It's definitely frustrating," said Lidge, who only recently
had been put back into the closer role after losing it to Dan
Wheeler. "I finally found my way back to where things were going
real good, and I'm just hoping that we can get this thing done as
soon as possible. I was trying to get through it and trying to
throw with it, but it was getting worse every day and starting to
bark real bad. So it made no sense for us to keep doing this. I'm
disappointed."

The move was retroactive to June 16 and made after the Astros
beat the Angels 9-5.

Lidge set an NL single-season record for strikeouts by a
reliever in 2004 with 157 and pitched in his first All-Star Game
the following year. But last year he struggled mightily, with an
ERA of 5.28.

This season he is 2-1 with a 2.34 ERA, but has blown all three
save opportunities. In 27 games since April 22, the right-hander
has allowed three earned runs over 29 1/3 innings.

"There's no question that if he kept trying to get through
this, it would be lingering," manager Phil Garner said. "I've
never seen an oblique get better with a guy trying to play on it
and nurse it. It's been bothering him for several days, so he needs
to shut down, and it'll be a while here where he won't do any
throwing activity."

The Astros purchased the contract of left-hander Stephen
Randolph from Triple-A Round Rock to fill Lidge's spot on the
25-man roster.

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