Livescore
The last thing the Yankees needed as they played out the final few games of the regular season was an injury, but that’s what happened to Anthony Rizzo on Saturday afternoon.
Batting in the seventh inning of their eventual 9-4 loss to the Pirates, Rizzo took an 88 mph slider from LHP Ryan Borucki to the hand. The veteran first baseman dropped his bat and was in visible pain as he walked to first base.
Rizzo would stay in the game to run the bases but was pulled in the eighth inning. Yankees manager Aaron Boone would announce after the game that Rizzo suffered fractures in two of his fingers on his right hand.
“We’ll see what we have as the week moves forward,” Boone said. “It doesn’t totally rule him out. It’s a pain tolerance thing. We’ll see as the days unfold here of what we have.”
The potential loss of Rizzo for the postseason would be big not just from a veteran bat standpoint but for the defense that he gives. He’s the Yankees’ best defensive first baseman and he masks a lot of the mistakes from the rest of the infield.
“He’s come back and done a really good job for us, helping anchor our defense and given us good at-bats in the bottom of the order as well,” Boone said. “I don’t want to jump into anything. We’ll see how he responds in the next several days before we kick this off in a week.”
The Yankees have already clinched a first-round bye and after Sunday’s regular-season finale, the team won’t play again until Game 1 of the ALDS next Saturday.
If the Yankees do have to play without Rizzo, Boone says he’s comfortable with the options they have on the team. Oswaldo Cabrera is the backup first baseman but Boone named rookie Ben Rice as another potential first baseman. Rice is in the minors after spending months on the big league roster with Rizzo on the IL with a fractured arm earlier in the season. However, he can only be used if they call him up, which would likely mean an IL stint for Rizzo. But as the Yankees skipper says, it’s too soon to declare anything.
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