Major League Baseball

A's 2B Mark Ellis goes on DL with hamstring injury

Published Apr. 22, 2010 1:43 a.m. ET

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Athletics second baseman Mark Ellis returned to the lineup Tuesday night only to realize his injured left hamstring still hasn't fully healed.

Oakland placed Ellis on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday, a day after he left early in the A's 7-3 loss to the New York Yankees when his hamstring began bothering him again on his first at-bat.

``It's not any worse than it was before the game,'' Ellis said. ``I have to let it heal and do some treatment.''

He had just come back after missing the previous seven games with the injury. An MRI exam revealed tendinitis in the hamstring area just above the back of the knee. It affects him both hitting and running.

``I could have had seven days. I kind of wasted seven days,'' Ellis said of the move not being retroactive to his last game before he played Tuesday. ``I don't think I would have known unless I tried playing. I guess I just wasn't ready.''

He will remain in Oakland for the remainder of the team's homestand through this weekend, then return to his home in Arizona to rehabilitate while the A's are on a six-game road trip at Tampa Bay and Toronto.

A's manager Bob Geren is confident Ellis will be ready to return as soon as he's eligible to be activated from the DL. Ellis was off to an uncharacteristic strong start, batting .323 with three RBIs in eight games. Ellis is the sixth player on the disabled list for the A's already, a trend for this injury-plagued team in recent years.

``It doesn't look real bad, I'm happy about that,'' Geren said of Ellis. ``After eight days off (seven games along with a team off day), he felt like he could play. I don't know if he did anything last night that set him way back or put him at square one.''

Catcher Landon Powell was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento to fill Ellis' roster spot. Powell appeared in 46 games for the A's last season, spending the entire year on the major league roster despite limited playing time as starting catcher Kurt Suzuki's backup.

Powell, among the final players cut out of spring training, was batting .217 with a home run and two RBIs in six games for Sacramento - three of those at catcher, two at designated hitter and one at first base.

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