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Kyle Schwarber left Friday night’s game after pulling up lame around first base after a single in the second. Schwarber stumbled as he approached first base, turned toward second, but abruptly stopped and grabbed the back of his right leg, the universal signal for a hamstring tweak.
His manager, Davey Martinez, didn’t give the red-hot, 28-year-old outfielder, who hit 16 HRs in his last 22 games (with a .325/.404/.938 line in 94 PAs over that stretch) any option, as he immediately told him he was coming out of the game.
“When you see a guy grab his leg like that,” Martinez explained, “... he’s on first base, you’ve got to get him out of the game, we’ve got to check him and see.
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“He’ll get — he’s pretty wrapped up, he’ll get the MRI tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”
Washington’s skipper confirmed that the Nationals’ slugger did tweak his hamstring.
“He’s got a — his right hamstring, we don’t know the severity of it, he’s going to get an MRI tomorrow, so we’ll know more tomorrow.”
His initial reaction to seeing Schwarber’s leg bite him.
“You’re just — you get very concerned and you hope that he can come out of it and be okay, but I spoke to him and I told him, ‘Hey, regardless of what the MRI reads, there’s still a lot of baseball left, and I’m really proud of what he’s been doing, and we’ll get you healthy, and we’ll get you back out there as soon as possible, so keep your head up and we’ll get through this and you’ll be ready to go here as soon as possible.’”
Schwarber, who’s been playing, and crushing, while dealing with a knee issue, was clearly frustrated to be the latest National to get bit by the injury bug.
“I don’t feel like we have an injury bug, we have an injury rat running around the clubhouse,” Max Scherzer said, after he handed a 3-1 lead to the bullpen after six, and saw the Dodgers put together a nine-run inning in what ended up a 10-5 win for LA.
“It feels like it’s just biting everyone at this point in time, and yeah, this is the wrong time, a point where we’re in a critical stretch and we’re having guys dropping like flies right now.”
Trea Turner and Jordy Mercer were the latest players to go down, with a jammed finger keeping Turner out of the last two games, while a quad issue landed Mercer on the IL.
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Those are just the latest injuries on a long list of issues for the Nationals, and Schwarber’s reaction was one of clear frustration.
“No one ever wants to come out of the game being hurt,” Martinez said of Schwarber’s initial reaction to the decision to take him out.
“But for me it was not really a decision, he was coming out, and he wanted to stay in and there’s no way he can stay in.
“I talked to him, he’s kind of calmed down a little bit, and we’ll wait for the MRI and see what happens tomorrow, but he loves playing the game, and he loves winning, and loves being out there and helping his teammates, and doing everything he can to help us win.”