CLEVELAND — For the second time in two seasons, Jake Westbrook wasn’t able to get out of the first month intact.
Westbrook was placed on the disabled list Tuesday with a strained left intercostal (rib cage) muscle, a similar injury to the one he sustained in his first start last April — a strained left oblique muscle, which caused him to miss almost two months.
An Indians spokesperson said the injury is on the same side of Westbrook’s body but not in the same area. The intercostal muscle is located toward the back, while the oblique is on the side.
According to the Indians, Westbrook complained of discomfort in the region after his last start, a 3-0 loss to Minnesota last Saturday. He returned to Cleveland on Sunday to undergo an MRI, while the Indians promoted outfielder Ben Francisco from Triple-A Buffalo to fill Westbrook’s roster spot.
It is another blow for the Indians, who are off to a disappointing start with their offense struggling and ace C.C. Sabathia, the defending American League Cy Young Award winner, scuffling. They can ill afford to lose a member of their rotation, especially one that was performing as well as Westbrook, who was 1-2 with a 2.73 ERA in four starts.
Westbrook didn’t allow a run in 18 exhibition innings, taking it into the regular season, where all four of his starts were quality ones – six or more innings, three or fewer earned runs. He entered Tuesday leading Cleveland with one complete game, 16 strikeouts and 29 2/3 innings. Opposing hitters are batting .255 off him.
The Indians won’t need a starter to replace Westbrook until Saturday in the second game of a four-game series against the Yankees at Progressive Field. The candidates are Buffalo left-handers Aaron Laffey (3-1, 3.13) and Jeremy Sowers (0-2, 3.18), with Laffey as the most likely choice after pitching well at the end of last season as Cleveland’s fifth starter.
There is no guarantee that Laffey or Sowers would take Francisco’s roster spot.
The Indians are getting little offensive production from platooning left fielders, David Dellucci (.257, 1 HR, 4 RBIs through Monday) and Jason Michaels (.125, 5 RBIs) and could choose to keep Francisco, who enjoyed an impressive stint in Cleveland last year, over one of them. Michaels, scheduled to make $2.15 million in the final year of his contract, would be the most likely to go, with Dellucci still under contract through 2009.
Francisco enjoyed an impressive spring training performance, hitting .362 (17-for-47), but did not make Cleveland’s opening-day roster and started slowly at Buffalo, where he batted .208 (15-for-72) with three RBIs in 18 games. He hit .274 with three home runs and 12 RBIs in 25 games for the Indians last year.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

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