Orioles all-star third baseman Manny Machado has been shut down for the rest of the season following a nasty leg injury suffered in a game between Baltimore and the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday. Machado appeared to injure his left knee as he was rounding first base in the seventh inning on Monday and had to be stretchered off the field.
The Orioles are not saying anything about the nature of the injury, or the timetable to recovery at this point, saying only that Machado will be taken to Baltimore tonight and will have an MRI hopefully Tuesday, once the swelling goes down enough in order for doctors to be able to determine the true nature of the injury.
“It’s potentially an injury that, you would think it would [end his season], just from the early reports,” manager Showalter said. “But let’s get everything in. But it certainly doesn’t look very promising right now.”
Showalter said its far too early in the process to have a full diagnosis.
“They took an X-ray and somehow they couldn’t develop the pictures. Had a little glitch there,” Showalter said. “I’m sure we won’t get a full diagnosis until we get the MRI back in Baltimore tomorrow morning. I think Dr. [John] Wilckens is already setting it up at one of the best hospitals in the country, so we’ll let them weigh in.”
Orioles teammate Brian Roberts had a gruesome elbow injury earlier in his career. He added the following on Machado’s injury.
“That was kind of, I guess, the beginning of my career in a lot of ways that year. And to have it end darn near pretty close to the same time with a pretty dramatic injury — I just hurt for him,” Roberts said. “You don’t want to see it happen to anybody but when you see what kind of special player he is and special kid he is. But the great part is he is 21 years old. You’ve got to find a bright spot in it as best you can.”
The hope here is that the injury will not affect Machado’s 2014 season. The 21-year old was having a real breakout campaign for Baltimore, playing outstanding defense at third and hitting .282/.313/.431 with 14 home runs, 51 doubles, 71 RBIs, and 87 Runs Scored this season.
With the Orioles wild-card hopes all but dead, there is little reason to rush Machado back into the lineup no matter what the MRI results say on Tuesday, and so he is done for the year. He will lose the 207 game iron-man streak that he started last August when he first came to the Majors.
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