KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -Detroit reliever Joel Zumaya had a heavy bandage on his painfully swollen middle finger Sunday and was headed for New York for an appointment with a hand specialist.
The hard-throwing right-hander, whose fastball has been clocked at 100 mph, described the sensation as a “shocking pain” and said he had no idea how long he might be out after incurring the freakish injury while warming up Saturday night.
“I thought maybe my knuckle cracked. I went to a curveball and I couldn’t even grip the ball,” he said. “I threw another fastball and it popped again, and a sharp pain ran through my finger. I called down and said, `I need a trainer quick.”’
Neither Zumaya nor Tigers manager Jim Leyland had any idea Sunday how long he might be out. A key member of the staff that took the Tigers to the World Series last year, Zumaya was 1-1 with a 3.63 ERA this year following a slow start. He was put on the disabled list Saturday night with what was described as a sprained right middle finger.
Zumaya said he would see Dr. Charles Melone on Monday in New York.
“I just want to go up there and get the word,” he said. “It’s really swollen right now. I have a sharp pain. The word’s going to come tomorrow. Hopefully, it’ll be a good one. I’m kind of frustrated right now.”
Leyland said he was not sure what he would do to rearrange the pitching staff.
“I’ll mix and match,” he said. “No. 1, what we want to do is try to find out the significance of the injury and then make a decision on somebody that would be a longer term or a shorter term guy. If this thing is more significant, which I’m assuming it probably is, then we’ll weigh all our factors on how we re-establish our pitching staff, whether we bring up a starter or go a different way with a reliever.”
Right-hander Aquilino Lopez was called up after Zumaya went on the DL. Lopez allowed two runs and two hits in 1 1-3 innings in the Tigers’ 13-4 win over Kansas City on Sunday.
“It’s discouraging, but hopefully it’s not as bad as people think it is,” Zumaya said. “It’s a freakish injury. Even the trainers are like, `I can’t believe that’s possible.’ But I have a lot of torque and a lot of whip in my wrist and my finger.”
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