Carter

PAWTUCKET — When a baseball player can step on the field, life is good.

Oh, there may be slumps that can erode a player’s confidence, there are long and tiring road trips and there are the nagging injuries that go hand-in-hand with participating in a long season.

Just being in the lineup, though, is what fuels any ballplayer.

So when there’s an injury that keeps a player off the field, it isn’t the easiest circumstance to handle. Injuries, however, go with the territory at any level. Two of Pawtucket’s slugging outfielders, Chris Carter and Jonathan Van Every, have had to come to grips with injuries recently with the PawSox trying to clinch a playoff spot and the Sept. 1 big-league roster expansion just around the corner.

Van Every (24 homers) and Carter (24) each was forced out of the lineup because of an oblique strain, Van Every’s occurring on Aug. 6 while Carter’s injury cropped up the next day. While Carter remains on Pawtucket’s disabled list, finally advancing to practice swings yesterday, Van Every was cleared to return to action on Tuesday.

Van Every

Van Every had to come out of Tuesday night’s game because of a stiff neck and remained sidelined for last night’s game against Syracuse at McCoy Stadium.

“It’s frustrating. You want to be out there with your teammates but you can’t be. It’s just something you have to deal with,” said Van Every yesterday as he sat in the clubhouse while the rest of the team was on the field for batting practice.

Van Every’s frustration was exacerbated on Tuesday night. Just when he thought he’d be able to play for the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs, should the PawSox make it, Van Every experienced neck trouble.

“I reacted to a fly ball and the neck started to get stiff,” said Van Every, who spent four days with Boston in mid-May, going 1-for-3 in his only appearance, a start in Baltimore.

“The oblique feels good and then something like that happens. It’s difficult. You want to be out there every day. You want your manager to make the decision of whether you play or not. You don’t want to make that decision for yourself (because of an injury),” he said.

Van Every is expected to return to the lineup soon, possibly as early as tonight, when Pawtucket wraps up its series with the Chiefs. Manager Ron Johnson, though, wants to make sure that Van Every’s neck loosens up before he puts him back in for fear that a stiff neck could lead to an alteration of his swing that could cause him to reinjure his oblique.

As for Carter, he’s probably about a week away from returning. Carter’s rehabilitation progressed to the point to where he was able to take some swings yesterday. His program for the next week, barring any setbacks, calls for a day off today from swinging, then two days of soft toss followed by two days of batting practice in the cage and, Carter hopes, game action the day after that test.

“I’m listening to Greg (Barajas, the PawSox trainer) and the doctors. I believe what they’re telling me so I’m going to do what they say. The ballplayer in me wants to go out on the field and play, but I won’t go crazy and try to do too much,” said Carter, who spent three days in Boston in early June, going 2-for-3 on June 5 in a home game against the Rays in his only action with the Red Sox.

“I never want to be hurt, especially at this time of year,” said Carter. “I definitely want to be in Boston (when rosters expand) because it’s the coolest place to play. But also not being able to help the team here is tough. There are a lot of bad things about being injured. All I can do is work hard.”

That’s not all Van Every and Carter do. They try to remain active parts of the team even if they’re not on the field.

“You try to stay in the game,” said Van Every. “You look at their swings and the pitchers, looking for anything that can help your teammates.”

“I try to cheer the team on,” said Carter. “Some guys will come over (on the bench) and we’ll talk, sometimes not even about baseball. I’ll make jokes to help them relax. I also coach first base. I won’t be going into the game so if someone else is going to play (instead of coaching first) they can get loose. I like doing it. I can feel the energy of the game.”

And hopefully for Van Every and Carter, as well as for the PawSox and their championship dreams, the outfield duo will be back in the lineup sooner rather Sthan later.

skrasner@projo.com