Escobar held out with right hamstring strain

TORONTO -- Yunel Escobar was out of the lineup for the second consecutive game on Saturday as he nurses a mild right-hamstring strain.

"He's feeling a lot better today, to the point where it's not sore," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "But I don't want to push it, because I don't think it's necessary. But he's definitely making progress. Let's just be a little more patient."

When asked if Escobar could be back in the lineup by Monday, Maddon said: "I would imagine so.

"We want him to get out here and run around a little bit. ... It's doing well, it's doing fine, we just don't want to push.

"I really think what happened is, he took those three days off [for the All-Star break] and worked out pretty hard on the day before we left [for Toronto] on Thursday. He did a lot of running on the turf, whether it was taking his ground balls. I think he just got sore from that. I really do."