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Donny and Marie Osmond ready to interact with F.M. Kirby Center audience

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Edwardsville Church planning fall sale

<p>MOOSIC &#8212; Starlin Castro learned a lesson from his first stint on the disabled list back in June.</p><p>He rushed his return from the DL after suffering a right hamstring strain on June 27. At first he thought he might have been able to avoid the disabled list all together, but that didn&#8217;t prove to be the case.</p><p>With the New York Yankees off to a slow start to the second half of the season, the second baseman wouldn&#8217;t say whether or not he felt 100 percent healthy, but that he &#8220;just felt that I could play.&#8221; He returned a little more than two weeks later on July 15.</p><p>However, during the Yankees&#8217; two-game series in Minnesota in mid-July, Castro suffered the very same hamstring strain trying to beat out a throw at first base and landed on the DL on July 22. This time around he wasn&#8217;t going to rush anything.</p><p>&#8220;Now I feel really good. I didn&#8217;t feel anything up there,&#8221; said Castro, , who batted second as the designated hitter in his first rehab appearance with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Friday night. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been running the bases in New York and everything. Hard work, hard start and hopefully that works.</p><p>&#8220;I think the last time I took it quick. We did it, like, too quick, but now I&#8217;m taking my time. I felt 100 percent and I did my bases and did everything, and now I&#8217;m ready to play.&#8221;</p><p>Castro admitted that the re-injured hamstring didn&#8217;t &#8220;feel that bad,&#8221; he &#8220;felt normal&#8221; and was able to continue playing. But the second baseman wasn&#8217;t the same player moving forward and needed to shut things down.</p><p>As tough as it was to watch his team struggle as he sat in the dugout, he knew it was the right thing to do.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s tough, especially (when) the team started playing not as good as we did in the first half,&#8221; Castro said, &#8220;but I think with all the guys coming back now &#8212; me, (Greg) Bird, (Aaron Hicks&#8217;) is playing with the team now &#8212; and I think we&#8217;ve started to play really good baseball now and I can&#8217;t wait to be back on the team.. I want to be available when the playoffs start. I like how I feel right now. I think I feel 100 percent. I&#8217;ve been doing a lot of work on the bases, a lot of hard work on doing my starts and I think I feel really good.&#8221;</p><p>Castro said before Friday&#8217;s game that the only thing he&#8217;s looking to accomplish during his Major League rehab with the RailRiders is to &#8220;do everything 100 percent and to try to feel myself, how good I am, how good I feel.&#8221;</p><p>As he gets back to 100 percent, he&#8217;s looking forward to watching the Yankees in the clubhouse after his games this weekend. He&#8217;s well aware of how big the series in Boston is, and when his time comes, he&#8217;ll be ready.</p><p>Castro said he expects to play with the RailRiders through the weekend and even head to Rochester with the team on Sunday for what could be &#8220;one or two games&#8221; next week.</p><p>&#8220;I am 100 percent excited to come back, especially (because we&#8217;re playing) good baseball right now,&#8221; Castro said. &#8220;This week in Boston, that&#8217;s the team that&#8217;s in first place and I think it&#8217;s going to be a really good series. I&#8217;m going to be here playing, cheering for my team to win and try to (get healthy) and come back.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Starlin Castro</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_Starlin-Castro-mug2017818161354367-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Starlin Castro</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Eager N.Y. Yankees 2B Starlin Castro starts Major League rehab with the SWB RailRiders Friday