John Maine has enough pain in his shoulder that he’s throwing light bullpens between starts. He and Jerry Manuel both said Maine (5 2/3 IP, 10 H, 8 ER) has struggled to execute his pitches because he simply hasn’t worked on them. He can’t.
“The goal is to go out there every fifth day, so I’m throwing between starts,” Maine said.
Maine, as you know, has been told he can’t sustain further structural damage by continuing to pitch. He was asked if this was something that could lead to offseason surgery. He looked around at the mob of reporters and said, “Sure.”
So there you have it. Maine may be trying to pitch through a condition that will require surgery.
Here’s what Manuel said:
Is John Maine 100 percent right now? No. Is he going to hurt himself? Probably not, no. Does he want to pitch? Yes, he wants to gut it out. He wants to be out there and we feel like at this point he’s not in any way going to injury it any further. … I am comfortable with anybody that wants to gut it out, period. I have no issue with that. But I do feel that if that is not enough for us to win, I have to make some decisions about that.
