When he went to his neck and said, 'I'm done,' I knew we needed to take him out of the game.

When he went to his neck and said, 'I'm done,' I knew we needed to take him out of the game. Hopefully, we don't have anything to worry about, but it would be a huge loss for us -- a No. 2 starter on a major league club.

He's still a day or two, in my opinion right now, away from being able to get up on the mound. I've got to be able to see him air it out on flat ground before I'd even think about putting him up on the mound. So I think he's still 48 hours from being able to make a real accurate decision [about starting on Saturday].

It regressed a little the last two days from when it was real good,

The real test will be when we get him on the mound -- and then after his mound exposure, we'll let him field some ground balls, ... We'll let him field bunts down both lines and we'll let him cover first base. ... He's got to be able to get around at least well enough to be able to do those things that are required out of every Major League pitcher.

There's no use having him throw unless he's close. And if that means early September, it's early September.