{"id":84792,"date":"2024-09-02T21:56:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T01:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=84792"},"modified":"2024-09-02T21:56:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T01:56:40","slug":"astros-kyle-tucker-injury-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/09\/02\/astros-kyle-tucker-injury-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Injured Astros Outfielder Return Imminent Amid Injury Confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker\u2019s return appears imminent after missing nearly three months with what has become a controversial shin injury. Tucker has not played in a major league game since fouling a ball off his right shin<\/a> in a June 3rd game against the Cardinals. Houston has long maintained that he suffered a \u201cdeep bone bruise\u201d or a \u201cshin contusion,\u201d but <\/span>The Athletic<\/span><\/i><\/a> reports that Tucker\u2019s shin was fractured.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>The Athletic<\/span><\/i>, three sources with knowledge of Tucker’s injury confirmed that the 27-year-old outfielder suffered a bone fracture. Astros general manager Dana Brown first denied that Tucker\u2019s shin had a fracture before confirming the injury in a statement made public Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter several rounds of medical imaging, we suspect there was some type of small fracture,\u201d Brown said in a statement to <\/span>The Athletic<\/span><\/i> on Monday. \u201cAs with all injuries of this type, once the fracture heals, it takes time for the muscles around the leg to regain strength. Tuck has worked extremely hard to get back on the field and thankfully is ready now to help us in September and in the postseason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Injured Astros Outfielder Kyle Tucker’s Return Is Imminent<\/h2>\n

Regardless, Tucker\u2019s return to the now first-place Astros lineup appears imminent. The three-time All-Star right fielder traveled with the Astros to Cincinnati for a three-game series that started on Monday. Tucker is back to facing live pitching and has been participating in defensive drills in the outfield. On Friday, Tucker said that the pain in his shin is “minimal” and called Houston\u2019s road trip the “best-case” scenario for his return.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If I’m not trying to beat out an infield single or hustling up to anything right now, I think I’d be fine,” Tucker said. “[I’ll] look to potentially [return] in Cincinnati or the home stand after.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Houston values starting <\/span>Yordan Alvarez<\/span><\/a> at designated hitter, but with <\/span>Alex Bregman<\/span><\/a> also injured, Tucker\u2019s return could be problematic if he is not ready to play the outfield. Astros manager Joe Espada said on Monday that Tucker was running at 85% with \u201cno issues.\u201d Though it’s unclear if being able to run at 100% is necessary, Espada said Tucker could return \u201cpretty soon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Astros have surged into first place in the American League West in his 91-day absence. Regaining even a limited version of Tucker could be tempting for Houston, who have lacked production in their corner outfield. His return would give an already dangerous Astros lineup a major boost on both sides of the ball going into the postseason.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker\u2019s return appears imminent after missing nearly three months with what has become a controversial shin injury. Tucker has not played in a major league game since fouling a ball off his right shin in a June 3rd game against the Cardinals. Houston has long maintained that he suffered a \u201cdeep bone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":84807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1071],"tags":[2319],"class_list":["post-84792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-mlb","tag-kyle-tucker"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}