Gary Matthews Jr. came out of today's game after grabbing his leg after running out a grounder.
Eric Nadel said that the word from the Rangers was that Matthews had a "hamstring injury". From the sound of it, I'm guessing a hamstring pull, which is generally something that takes a good three weeks to come back from.
My guess is that Jason Conti gets called up, with Matthews going on the D.L. The Rangers have plenty of room on the 40 man roster, so they can add Conti without a problem, and a hamstring is the type of thing that can linger and pop back up if it doesn't fully heal, so the smart thing would be to go ahead and d.l. Matthews immediately and let him start resting and rehabbing.
My preference would be to go ahead and call up both Conti and Jason Botts, and send Chad Allen back down to AAA. Botts could be the regular (or semi-regular) DH until Matthews gets back, Conti could spell Nix in CF, and Dellucci and Hidalgo could platoon in RF.
The perfect solution...I'm sure it won't happen, though. Matthews getting hurt will just mean more Allen ABs.
Take a look at Oklahoma's box score today, though...if either Conti or Botts isn't playing, then that's a dead giveaway about who is coming up.
Update [2005-5-14 22:23:23 by Adam J. Morris]:Both Botts and Conti are in the lineup for Oklahoma tonight, so apparently no move regarding GMJ is imminent.