Josh Harrison was not in the starting lineup for the second straight game Friday as Chicago White Sox began a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
But the second baseman said his back is feeling “a lot better,” and if he had his way he would be back Saturday.
“A little unfortunate, but that’s a part of baseball, a part of what we do,” Harrison said Friday, referring to the injury. “We’ve got a deep team. Better safe than sorry. I’d rather (it be) a day or two thing as opposed to something being extended. We have a good team, and that’s what good teams do — we rely on each other.”
Harrison exited Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners with lower back stiffness. He was lifted for Danny Mendick before the top of the eighth inning.
“I don’t think it’s so much the weather conditions (on Wednesday), granted, cold weather can definitely affect what you do out there,” Harrison said. “But I play hard and sometimes we play and we might make movements not really realize until later in the game and that’s part of taking inventory of what we feel ourselves.
“I don’t want to jeopardize anything going out there feeling I have to be Superman, the sixth game of the season when if I need a day or two to be able to be there for 162, that’s what it’s all about, all of us being healthy and relying on each other.”
Harrison was the second of two Sox starters to leave Wednesday’s game early. Left fielder Eloy Jiménez suffered a bruised left ankle after fouling a pitch off his ankle during a third-inning at-bat. Leury García hit for him in the fifth.
Jiménez returned Friday after being out of the lineup Thursday.
“He said he’s good to go,” Sox manager Tony La Russa said. “(Head athletic trainer James) Kruk checked him out, so he’s all right.”
La Russa said Harrison was “Possible, probable (Saturday).”
“I felt really good going through all my tests (Friday) and as I said (I) just want to be smart about it,” Harrison said. “I am definitely looking forward to being back out there (Saturday), and if anything changes, it will be the next day. But if it’s up to me, the way I’m feeling, I’m looking forward to seeing how I feel (Friday night) and bouncing back (Saturday).”
Harrison, 34, is 3-for-18 with a double, triple, one RBI and three runs in five games. The 12-year veteran, a two-time All-Star, signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal in March.
In addition to starting at second, he has filled in at third. He made two spectacular plays at second Wednesday, including flipping the ball from his glove to shortstop Tim Anderson for a force to end the fourth inning.
“‘That comes from all the hours in spring training and communication on where we’re going to be,” Harrison said. “Even days that we weren’t playing, having those groundball days where we’re working on being in the shift, being up the middle, flips, knowing where he’s going to be, knowing where I’m going to be. That’s where it showed.”
Although he wasn’t in the lineup, the veteran said wearing the No. 42 for MLB’s annual tribute to Jackie Robinson is “an honor.” Friday marked the 75th anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier.
“For one, to play at this level it’s an honor,” Harrison said. “Two, to put that on — there’s a reason that number’s retired. And we go through not just baseball, we go through life living our daily lives monotonous — waking up and going through our days and not taking a step back to realize how many people have paved the way for us to be able to do what we do.
“And wearing that 42 to look around (Friday night) and everybody wearing 42 is a reminder that we’re here because of what he stood for and we have to continue to carry his legacy the correct way.”
()