The Pirates defeated the Washington Nationals 4-2 Wednesday night, but the departure of starter Erik Bedard after one inning due to back spasms cast a pall over the evening. Bedard has been injury-prone in the past several years, and the last thing the Pirates would want would be to lose for an extended period one of their more effective starters.

With any injury, it's hard to speculate, but fortunately, it looks like our default outlook should be that the injury isn't terribly serious. Bedard has suffered back spasms before, and they're typically not a big deal, he says.

"I did it four years ago, too," Bedard said. "Same thing, one pitch. With back spasms, it usually hurts for a couple of days, gradually goes a away, and then you’re fine."

It's unclear if Bedard will be able to make his next scheduled start, and it wouldn't be much of a surprise if the Pirates held him out just to be careful. Until we hear that the injury is more serious, though, I wouldn't assume he'll miss much more that that.

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