Mandatory Credit: Jon Durr-USA TODAY Sports
The Red Sox have been dealing with a tremendous number of health problems in the early going and this parade of injuries doesn’t appear to be stopping as Mike Napoli added his name to the injury report last night. Napoli exited last night’s game early after dislocating his ring finger while sliding into second base. Luckily, the injury doesn’t appear to be serious. X-rays revealed that there was no break in Napoli’s finger and there is likely no need for a lengthy trip to the disabled list for the 32-year old first baseman.
However, that doesn’t mean that the injury didn’t look scary at the time.
"Good dirtball read like that, I was digging myself, and then I looked at my finger and it’s freakin’ sideways so it’s good news it’s not broken. I know I hit the bag pretty hard and I looked and it was right there in front of my face, then I saw it and I went, ‘oh, God’ [umpire] Jim Joyce was going ‘oh my God,’ calling for the trainer. It’ll be all right."
Manager John Farrell agreed with Napoli’s assessment, stating that he does not expect Napoli to be out for a significant amount of time. However, Napoli will be on the bench for tonight’s game against the White Sox as Daniel Nava will cover first base and bat seventh, with Jonny Gomes sliding into Napoli’s usual fourth spot in the order.
For more news on the injury front, both Dustin Pedroia and Koji Uehara are active for tonight’s game, with Pedroia leading off and playing second base. Not losing Pedroia and Napoli for a significant amount of time is a big boost to a lineup that has severely struggled in the early going. That’s no guarantee with Napoli will tough it out and be in tomorrow’s lineup, but as far as sideways fingers go, this injury appears to be relatively mild.