The Cubs will decide Monday whether to put Mike Harkey on the disabled list. It seems to be a foregone conclusion, but the club will wait to evaluate the results of a magnetic-resonance-imaging test.
Harkey is not looking forward to his second MRI in as many years. But he will take the test to try to learn what`s wrong with his shoulder, which flared up again in Friday night`s outing against Cincinnati. Doctors diagnosed him last year as having tendinitis.
”Last year I had an MRI, and it didn`t show anything,” said Harkey, who hopes his shoulder is only strained.
In an MRI, the patient is enclosed in a capsule while the machine photographs the affected area. It`s rough on claustrophobics; former White Sox pitcher Eric King refused several MRIs because he claimed he couldn`t take being closed in the tube.
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”The first 10 minutes were tough,” Harkey said. ”I was in there for an hour and a half.”
Until then, Harkey will rest and the Cubs will decide who will replace him in the rotation. He`s 0-2 with a 5.30 earned-run average, but he`s second on the staff in strikeouts with 15 in 18 2/3 innings.
– The Cubs didn`t seem like a team that had lost seven of eight games before Saturday`s game. Their pre-game stretch was a riot, thanks in large part to the standup comedy of reserve outfielder Dwight Smith. ”That`s my role-keep those boys loose,” said Smith.
– The Cubs need to pick up the pace if they`re going to live up to all the pre-season hype about ”Murderers` Row.” They have hit 17 homers in 19 games, a pace that would give them 143 for the season. That`s just seven more than they hit a year ago and nowhere near the club record of 209 in the rabbit-ball season of 1987.
Part of Saturday`s power was supplied by a likely source, Andre Dawson, who swatted his team-leading fifth off Don Carman. Dawson`s blast was his 126th on the North Side, tying him with Andy Pafko for 10th on the all-time list.
The rest of the muscle came from an unlikely source, pitcher Shawn Boskie, who took Norm Charlton over the left-field wall. It was the first homer by a Cubs pitcher since Sept. 18, 1989, when Mitch Williams mashed a three-run shot against New York`s Don Aase at Wrigley Field.
– Rick Sutcliffe will make his second attempt Sunday to win his 100th game in the National League. Sutcliffe, who won 35 games in the American League, is 77-61 in seven Cubs seasons. He went 22-21 in three years in Los Angeles at the start of his career.