CHICAGO – Cardinals pitcher Jake Westbrook had to cut short a bullpen session after just ten pitches Saturday due to renewed discomfort in his right side.
Westbrook, out since straining his right oblique on Sept. 8, had hoped to return to the Cardinals rotation sometime this week. Instead, he may be done for the season.
"It's terrible timing," Westbrook said. "That's what's so disappointing. It's hard to imagine getting a start in now. It depends on how it feels."
The veteran right-hander is 13-11 with a 3.97 ERA in 28 starts for the Cardinals. He signed a one-year contract extension with the Cardinals on August 21 but went 1-2 with a 7.52 ERA in four starts since.
Westbrook, who turns 35 next week, initially planned to throw a bullpen session on Friday but pushed it back a day. He spent several minutes in the training room after returning from the abbreviated bullpen session Saturday morning before speaking with reporters.
"I knew it wasn't great but it hasn't gotten better and it's slowly gotten worse each day," Westbrook said. "I was kind of hoping with the extra day it would bounce back but that's not the case. It's not healed.
"It's just kind of back to where it was right after it happened. I feel it doing small things, moving around the bed and stuff."
Lance Lynn will likely remain in the rotation for the rest of the regular season should Westbrook not be able to return. He's made two starts since Westbrook went down and has allowed one earned run in 12 1/3 innings.
Asked about the possibility of Westbrook not returning this season, manager Mike Matheny said, "I don't think that's fair to him to get too far ahead of ourselves. We'll just watch and see what we get, when we get it.
"Today wasn't a good day. It was a day that was just best to shut him down."
