TORONTO -- The Baltimore Orioles placed right-hander Dennis Sarfate on the 15-day disabled list Sunday with a circulatory problem and recalled right-hander Bob McCrory from Triple-A Norfolk.
Sarfate, 0-0 with a 6.39 ERA in eight appearances, left Friday's game in the seventh inning because of numbness in his right middle finger. Sarfate, who entered the game in the sixth, said he kept losing and regaining feeling in his finger, preventing him from gripping the ball, and said he has never experienced the sensation before.
Sarfate was examined by a specialist in Toronto on Saturday, revealing a minor blockage in a blood vessel his upper arm caused by muscle mass in his biceps. He will return to Baltimore Sunday and have an angiogram Monday.
"I'm glad it's not something serious, nothing with the heart or anything like that," Sarfate said. "They said it's common with athletes, where they get some sort of blockage up there, muscle mass and all that."
Sarfate went 4-3 with a 4.74 ERA in 57 games, including four starts, with Baltimore last year. He had surgery in September to repair a broken clavicle and has suffered from a drop in velocity since returning this season.
McCrory was 0-0 with a 2.25 ERA in nine games at Triple-A. He made eight relief appearances for Baltimore in 2008, going 0-0 with a 15.63 ERA.