Piazza Injured

Mike Piazza will miss 4-to-6 weeks with a strained right shoulder he injured when he dove into third base in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid being tagged.

With two outs in the sixth and runners at first and second, Bobby Crosby hit a grounder to Boston third baseman Mike Lowell. Piazza and Lowell both hustled for the bag and collided near it. Piazza was tagged out and stayed on the ground in pain for a short time.

"It's frustrating," said Piazza, his arm in a sling. "I felt like I was starting to swing the bat a little better and it's a tough setback. It's really frustrating."

Piazza is batting .282 with 1 home run and 8 RBI in 103 at bats.

"I just wanted to get my at-bats in now and just keep seeing pitching," he said.

Oakland was leading 3-2 when Crosby grounded to Lowell. Piazza thought Lowell would throw to first and that was Lowell's initial intention, but he saw his best chance was to race Piazza to third.

Piazza said he saw "a little sliver of daylight" and dove headfirst rather than slide feet first. He first thought he had separated his shoulder, but the injury later was diagnosed as a strained AC joint.

"He just kind of landed on my arm," Piazza said. "It's just a freak thing, just a freak play, and he was obviously concerned."

Lowell lingered briefly at the base.

"When I said, 'are you all right?' he said, 'It's my arm, my arm,'" said Lowell, who called the Oakland clubhouse to see if Piazza was OK. "You hate to hear he's going to be out."