Langston Has Torn Cartilage in Knee

An MRI exam on pitcher Mark Langston’s right knee Monday showed a slight cartilage tear, but doctors won’t determine until today whether the left-hander will need arthroscopic knee surgery.

Surgery would probably result in at least a three-week stint on the disabled list for Langston, who will be examined by team physician Lewis Yocum today. The other treatment option: Rest and hope the knee heals.

Manager Marcel Lachemann said there’s an “outside chance” Langston, scratched from Sunday’s game against Minnesota, will make his next scheduled start Friday against Cleveland. Langston’s body--he limped across the clubhouse to meet with reporters before Monday night’s game--spoke another language.

“There’s no way I can make my next start,” said Langston, who has been on the disabled list only twice in his 13-year major league career. “It’s pretty sore. It all depends on the swelling, that’s the key.”

Langston’s knee had been bothering him slightly since spring training, but that didn’t prevent him from going 2-1 with a 3.65 earned-run average in six starts.

But when he sprinted in the outfield to begin warming up Sunday, “I felt something go in my knee--something I’ve never felt before,” Langston said. “I was hoping it would go away, and it got worse.”

If Langston can’t pitch Friday, he would probably be replaced by Scott Sanderson, who is eligible to come off the disabled list that day.

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Reliever Bryan Harvey’s simulated game Monday was a simulation of his last major league appearance with the Florida Marlins on April 28, 1995--it ended quickly because of pain in his right arm.

Harvey, trying to recover from reconstructive elbow surgery last May, left the mound after four pitches Monday, and his rehabilitation assignment, which he hoped would begin at Class-A Lake Elsinore on Saturday, will probably be pushed back.

“I think it was some scar tissue pulling--I don’t think it’s that serious. I talked to Troy, and he said the same thing happened to him when he tried to extend his arm for the first time,” Harvey said of teammate Troy Percival, who had reconstructive elbow surgery in 1993.

Harvey made about 20 light throws after the simulated game attempt and said his arm felt fine. There was also no swelling in the elbow.

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Lachemann said Sunday that struggling third baseman George Arias would return to the lineup Monday night, but Tim Wallach started against the Royals, and Arias sat out his third consecutive game. Lachemann, however, said Wallach started because of his history of success (.357, two homers) against Kansas City pitcher Tim Belcher, and that Arias would start tonight. . . . Sanderson, recovering from a strained right groin, threw 60 pitches in a simulated game and appears to be ready to rejoin the rotation Friday.