NEW YORK -- Orioles center fielder Adam Jones exited Friday's game against the Yankees in the second inning with a left hamstring strain, though the injury isn't believed to be serious.
"It's not a DL thing," manager Buck Showalter said following his club's 14-4 series-opening loss. "I still think we're in pretty good shape with it."
Jones, who was removed on Thursday night in the ninth inning for what the Os' deemed a hamstring cramp, passed all of Friday's pregame tests. But he moved slowly down the line on his first-inning groundout and Jones -- who is an incredibly tough player -- didn't return.
"Came out of the game, so something must have not felt great," Jones said. "[It] took me out of my element. If [I] ain't got my legs as a center fielder, what more do you have?"
Showalter said Friday afternoon that he had two lineups made out, one without Jones, though the center fielder came through his early work OK.
"Had a real good day today, felt good, was running around good," Showalter said of Jones pregame. "The first play, the swinging bunt, the field was wet early on. They put the water on it. He said he thought he'd be all right, went out to center field. I just didn't like the way he was moving around and I decided not to take a chance with it. See where we are tomorrow."
With the O's playing a day game on Saturday, neither Showalter nor Jones would commit to whether the All-Star would be back in the lineup.
"It sucks. I feel like I let my team down. Put Nolan Reimold in a peculiar situation," Jones said of Reimold taking over in center. "Just put people in situations that they're not familiar with. Let's try and get this correct and make that big push. At this point and time in the season, missing more than a few games would hurt this team."
Will it only be a few?
<p[> "I don't know," said Jones, who is batting .275 with 24 homers and 74 RBIs. "You never know. Tomorrow, [it] might feel great. I'm always optimistic." </p[>