Disabled List

Mariano Duncan said last night that his strained right hamstring felt "worse than it ever has," increasing the likelihood that the Phillies' third baseman will be placed on the disabled list. The Phils, who are idle tonight, will probably make a decision before tomorrow's game in Atlanta, manager Jim Fregosi said. Duncan injured the hamstring Sunday against San Diego. If Duncan is placed on the disabled list, the Phils will probably recall Kevin Jordan from triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he was recently switched from second base to third base.

Curt Schilling was placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Boston Red Sox, a move that was expected as he works his way back from offseason ankle surgery. Manager Terry Francona said the righthander will pitch against minor leaguers twice more, then is tentatively scheduled to start for the World Series champions against the New York Yankees on April 13 at Fenway Park. Righthander Wade Miller and outfielder Adam Stern also will miss the start of the season. Miller (right shoulder strain)

The search for Ben Rivera's lost fastball will resume soon in the most unlikely of locales: Clearwater, Fla. As expected, the Phillies announced yesterday that they had placed Rivera on the 15-day disabled list after an examination uncovered something physically wrong. He was said to have a strained right shoulder. After a magnetic-resonance-imaging test today, the righthander will leave for Clearwater and a stint in extended spring training. Team doctor Phillip Marone "saw something in there," Phils general manager Lee Thomas said before last night's Phillies-Braves game.

Jimmy Rollins was placed on the disabled list Wednesday with a strained right calf muscle, but the Phillies shortstop thought it was going to be worse when he suffered the injury just before the start of the team's home opener Monday. "Yes, it's a lot better than I thought," Rollins said before the Phillies' game against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night. "I thought it was completely just full torn. People talking about [tearing] their Achilles [tendon] all the time and how it felt like a gunshot went off in their body.

The Oakland Athletics yesterday placed outfielder Jermaine Dye on the 15-day disabled list with torn cartilage in his right knee. Dye twisted the knee in Thursday's game against Detroit and has had heavy swelling since, the A's Web site said. He had the knee drained yesterday and blood was discovered. "When you see a lot of blood in the fluid that comes out, that lets you know that there is something wrong inside," Oakland trainer Larry Davis said on the Web site. Dye is hitting just .189 with one home run and six runs batted in this season.

The disabled list will look like an All-Star team on Opening Day. Nomar Garciaparra and John Smoltz admitted yesterday they won't be ready for the start of the season next week, and Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter may be headed to the DL, too. So might Kevin Brown (Achilles' tendon), Orlando Hernandez (elbow) and David Cone (shoulder). They would join Kris Benson (elbow), Charles Nagy (elbow), Jaret Wright (shoulder) and John Valentin (knee). And Albert Belle will be there, too, his career ended by an arthritic hip. Garciaparra is likely to miss at least the first 2 1/2 months of the season - and possibly up to four months - because of an injured right wrist.

Phillies manager Jim Fregosi, sitting in the visitors' clubhouse office at Candlestick Park last night, said that lefthander Sid Fernandez would be sidelined "indefinitely" because of a strained ligament in his pitching elbow. The news coming from Philadelphia, where Fernandez had a series of tests yesterday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, didn't sound quite as ominous. According to Phillies general manager Lee Thomas, club physician Phillip Marone estimated Fernandez would miss "a couple of weeks" and said he would receive treatment from trainer Jeff Cooper.

Danny Cox had to watch from the sidelines yesterday, and it wasn't fun. He wanted to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates, to match wits with the best, but his body wouldn't permit it. If he hadn't strained a groin muscle on May 18, he would have taken the mound for the series finale against Pittsburgh. "I'm not too happy about not pitching," he said yesterday. Then he quipped, "I'm sure Tommy Greene is happy about it. " Greene took his slot in the rotation, and wound up winning the Phillies player of the month award, surrendering exactly one earned run in 31 innings during the month of May. Cox, meanwhile, has spent the last two weeks jogging, working with the trainer, learning about groin pulls, and, in general, "just hanging around, feeling like a real piece of meat.