Tests on Shawn Boskie`s sore right shoulder showed nothing unusual and he is scheduled to return to the pitching rotation Monday.
Boskie, who left the mound early in each of his last two starts, has had pain in the muscle under his right collarbone for nearly a month. Dr. Michael Schafer, the Cubs` orthopedic surgeon, conducted a magnetic-resonance-imaging exam on the shoulder Wednesday and all results were normal.
Manager Jim Lefebvre said Boskie (5-3) would be given an extra day to rest the shoulder and would start Monday at New York instead of Sunday in Philadelphia.
Mike Morgan (5-2), who pitched three innings in Wednesday`s rainout, will take Boskie`s place Sunday.
”I feel a lot better today,” said Boskie, who faced only two batters Tuesday before leaving. ”I can tell it`s getting better.”
Back to form: Catcher Joe Girardi said the injury he suffered during batting practice Tuesday was to his rib-not to his back. The Cubs originally announced Girardi was scratched from the lineup with ”tightness in his right lower back.” That sounded ominous because Girardi missed all but 21 games last season with a bulging disk in his lower back. ”It`s not my back at all,”
said Girardi. ”It was a muscle under my rib cage. The back is fine and I`m available to play now if they need me.”
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All-Star votes: Ryne Sandberg is running away with the voting for second base on the All-Star team. Preliminary results of fan balloting show Sandberg with 605,572 votes, nearly six times as many as his nearest rival, Montreal`s Delino DeShields.
Old duds: The Cubs and Phillies will wear 1948 replica uniforms Sunday as part of a Nostalgia Day promotion at Veterans Stadium. Uniforms from that game will be auctioned later this year at the annual Phillies charity event.
London fans: Major League Baseball said nearly 300,000 viewers in the United Kingdom stayed up in the middle of the night early Sunday to watch the live telecast of the Cubs-Expos game. It was the first live telecast of a regular- season game in the United Kingdom and aired between 1 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., London time.