Youkilis hopes to avoid D.L.

Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis, out of the lineup since Monday with what he describes as a "left side" injury (asked whether it was an oblique, he said that he wasn't sure of the exact medical terminology of the injury), said that he continues to improve. Even so, he has yet to resume baseball activities. As of today, he had yet to swing a bat since leaving in the middle of Monday's game against the Yankees.
 
With an off-day scheduled on Monday, the Sox are hoping that he will continue to improve and be ready to return -- or nearly ready to return -- by the start of the series against the Angels on Tuesday. If that proves impossible, then the first baseman suggested that he could end up landing on the disabled list.
 
"If I can’t get in by this roadtrip," said Youkilis, "they’ll probably put me on the D.L. I want to play as soon as possible."
 
Sox manager Terry Frnaocna, however, suggested that the D.L. was not an imminent possibility.
 
"No. We're at five (games missed) today, tomorrow's six, then we have a day off," Francona said. "Unless there was something really compelling -- he'd have to feel really good tomorrow -- with that day off Monday, we'll try to use that to his advatnage. Since it's gone this far, we don't want to jeopardize the D.L. to get him in one game."
 
Youkilis felt confident that he is progressing in the right direction.
 
"Everyday it gets better. Today it feels good, and hopefully tomorrow it feels even better," he said. "We don’t have a timetable, but we want to make sure it’s 100 percent so it doesn’t happen again all year."