Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic broke his silence Wednesday about the hamstring strain that has kept him sidelined since early April.

He told reporters at the team hotel in Oklahoma City he doesn’t know when he can rejoin the Lakers, who lost 108-90 in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Thunder on Tuesday night.

“It’s very frustrating,” Doncic said. “I don’t think people understand how frustrating it is. All I want to do is play basketball, especially this time. It’s the best time to play basketball.

“It’s very frustrating seeing what my team is doing. I’m very proud of them. It’s been very tough to just to sit and watch them play.”

Doncic, 27, sustained the Grade 2 strain in his left hamstring five weeks ago on April 2 in Oklahoma City. He missed the last five games of the regular season and sat out the six-game first-round playoff series win against the Houston Rockets.

“The day I did the MRI on the hamstring, the doctor told me eight weeks (recovery) at the beginning,” Doncic said. “I’m doing everything I can in the process, and I think we’re on a good way. But at the beginning, he told me eight weeks.”

Doncic averaged a league-high 33.5 points with 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds in 64 games (all starts) in the regular season.

The six-time All-Star guard was noncommittal when asked about his potential return later in this series, with Game 3 set for Saturday in Los Angeles.

“I’m just doing everything I can,” said Doncic, who has started running but has not participated in any contact drills. “Every day, I’m doing stuff I’m supposed to do. Obviously recovery, now I’m working. … Just going day by day, and I feel better every day.”

Doncic said he has been proceeding with caution during his recovery, which included traveling to Spain to receive platelet-rich plasma therapy.

“It’s a tough one for me because I came back from injuries before too soon, and it wasn’t the best result,” Doncic said. “You have to be very careful, and I’m doing everything to come back. All the recovery, the (hyperbaric) chamber, cold tub, everything I can to come back, but it’s obviously very different than other injuries I had.”

–Field Level Media

Andrew Vaughn hit a three-run homer for the Milwaukee Brewers, who had five pitchers team up to limit the host St. Louis Cardinals to just four hits in a 6-2 victory on Wednesday afternoon.

Vaughn, reinstated from the injured list Monday after breaking the hamate bone in his left hand on Opening Day, capped a four-run first with his first homer of the season, which he hit off Andre Pallante 403 feet to left-center field.

Pallante (3-3) got the first two Brewers batters out to start the game, but he allowed Brice Turang to reach on a single and hit William Contreras. Jake Bauers singled home Turang before he and Contreras scored on Vaughn’s blast, which came on a full count.

Milwaukee scored all its runs with two outs. Joey Ortiz scored on a Pallante wild pitch in the fifth, and Jackson Chourio’s ninth-inning double to right off Matt Svanson scored Sal Frelick.

The Brewers pounded out 11 hits to split the two-game series with the Cardinals. Bauers went 2-for-3 with a walk. Vaughn added a single as part of a 2-for-4 day, while Chourio and Frelick both enjoyed 2-for-5 games.

Brandon Sproat threw four shutout innings and allowed just a hit while striking out five. However, three walks and a hit batsman kept the 25-year-old right-hander, who entered Wednesday having allowed 20 earned runs in 26 2/3 innings, from being able to claim his first career major league victory.

Aaron Ashby (6-0) allowed just a walk in two innings of relief to get the victory. DL Hall pitched a perfect fifth inning with a strikeout for the Brewers.

Pallante went six innings, gave up eight hits and two walks and struck out three.

The Cardinals’ only hit through seven innings was Ivan Herrera’s first-inning double. Alec Burleson put the hosts on the board with an eighth-inning single off Trevor Megill that scored Victor Scott II to end the shutout.

Cardinals left fielder Nathan Church exited after three innings due to a left leg contusion he suffered when Sproat hit him in the second.

–Field Level Media

The Detroit Tigers placed three-time All-Star second baseman Gleyber Torres on the 10-day injured list Wednesday with a left oblique strain.

Torres, 29, had progressed in recent days but continued to feel pain while swinging. He was unable to serve as a pinch hitter, leading the Tigers to put him on the IL, retroactive to Monday.

“It’s a mild left oblique strain that continues to nag him,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “Obviously, Gleyber has been getting treatment and getting looked at by doctors — and it continues to be stagnant. Hopefully, this will resolve itself within a short time period, but nowadays, I don’t know.”

In his ninth MLB season, Torres is hitting .259 with two home runs, 11 RBIs and a .716 OPS in 32 games.

“I was getting better and better, but I still feel it a little bit in that area,” Torres said. “At this point, we don’t want to push it. It’s not a really big strain, so hopefully, I can get back (on a rehab assignment) in five days — not two weeks. Let’s see what’s going to happen in the next couple of days.”

Torres is a career .264 hitter with 156 homers, 526 RBIs and a .769 OPS in 1,065 games with the New York Yankees (2018-24) and Tigers.

Third baseman Jace Jung, 25, was recalled from Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding move. He has appeared in two games this season for Detroit, collecting one hit and one run in four at-bats.

–Field Level Media