In Miami on Sunday, the Colorado Rockies suffered perhaps one of their biggest scares of the season when third baseman Nolan Arenado absorbed a fastball to his left hand and immediately jumped away in pain. Fear not, though, Rockies fans; it’s only a contusion.
“I was a little surprised. I thought I broke it right when it happened,” Arenado said before Monday’s game at Coors Field. “It got super tight right after. Last time I broke a finger, and I’ve broken bones before, it gets super tight and it usually comes out broken, but thank God this one didn’t.”
Manager Bud Black was elated when he got the news on Sunday night.
“This has been a little bit of a break for us,” Black said. “It could have been much worse, like a lot of injuries, but we’re very happy about the outcome of this one.”
On Monday, the day after he sustained the injury, Arenado said that while the pain was still there, he did feel a bit better than before.
“It’s not bad. It’s swollen,” Arenado said. “It hurts, but like I said, it is what it is. It’s not as swollen as we thought it would be. It’s just something that I have to deal with, it’s just pain tolerance. When you’re in a playoff run like we are, I’ll be good to go.”
Believe it or not, he may be back sooner than you think. Arenado, always the highly-competitive optimist, alluded that he might even make an appearance in Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves in Denver.
“I can play defense. I think I can really do anything if this was like a big game to get in the playoffs or something. I’m good to go, honestly. It hurts, but I’ve dealt with worse pain,” he said. “I haven’t put a glove on yet, but I will.”
Prior to the game on Monday, Arenado was in high spirits about the injury, saying that he’s maintained his grip strength since the onset of the contusion. That’s incredible news for the Rockies, who lost Mark Reynolds for a considerable amount of time last season after fracturing his hamate bone – in the same general area Arenado got hit by the pitch.
“He’s encouraged. He came in earlier today and we talked a little bit,” Black said. “There’s a possibility of if things go right the rest of the afternoon and he does some treatment in the early portion of the game, he’ll be available.”
While it would be highly unlikely to put Arenado into the game tonight, he won’t be out of the action for too long. The initial shock of the injury turned out to be the worst part of the whole ordeal.
“I don’t think we’re going to do any more X-rays,” Arenado said. “I mean, I can move it and I can swing, so at the end of the day I think it’s just pain tolerance. If it was something, like a micro-fracture or something, then it would just be something I’d have to deal with. They said it’s not going to get any worse.”
