Blue Jays place Eckstein and McDonald on DL

5/8/2008 7:33 PM

TORONTO (AP) -The Blue Jays placed shortstops David Eckstein and John McDonald on the 15-day disabled list Thursday, two days after both were injured in a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

The DL stints were made retroactive to Wednesday. Utilityman Joe Inglett was promoted from Triple-A Syracuse, with another roster move likely before Friday's game at Cleveland.

``By tomorrow we'll have something, either internally or externally,'' general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. ``It's all pending a couple of things that I can't say right now. We've got some irons in the fire. Hopefully we'll be able to see it through. If not, we'll have to go to Plan B.''

Inglett appeared in 12 games for Toronto earlier this season, batting .303 with no homers and four RBIs.

Eckstein suffered a strained right hip flexor diving for a ball in Tuesday's 5-4 loss. McDonald came on to replace Eckstein, but sprained his right ankle one inning later, catching a cleat and rolling over on his ankle as he went down to backhand a grounder.

McDonald immediately clutched his lower leg and had to be carted off the field. He left the stadium on crutches, but is now walking without them.

``I'm walking on it but I can't run on it,'' he said. ``I wrenched it pretty good. The ligaments have got to heal up.''

McDonald is batting .182 with no homers and one RBI in 17 games. Eckstein has a .246 average with one homer and 12 RBIs in 30 games.

Marco Scutaro was in the lineup at shortstop for the second straight game Thursday. Jorge Velandia, whose contract was purchased from Syracuse on Wednesday, will serve as Scutaro's backup.