There's probably no hotter hitter in the major leagues than Andre Ethier; he leads the majors with 38 RBI, and his 11 home runs are tied for the NL lead. Oh, and he's batting .392. That's nice too.
Dodgers’ Hot-Hitting Ethier Sidelined By Broken Pinkie
Unfortunately for Ethier, those numbers are going to have to hold up for a while, as he’s been waylaid by one of the most insidiously small but significant injuries possible--a broken bone in his pinkie:
The left-handed Ethier said he was taking swings in the indoor batting cage when he pinched his right pinkie against his bat. He took a few swings during BP on the field and finally told hitting coach Don Mattingly that it wasn’t feeling right.
Ethier said his finger bothered him playing catch. He’ll be examined Sunday by a hand specialist in Los Angeles.
“It could be a couple of days, it could be longer than that,” Ethier said. “I’m a little disappointed in the fact it’s something this small.”
Until Ethier gets results from the specialist, there’s obviously no telling how long he’ll be out; the worst case scenario is a trip to the disabled list.
If he's not able, however, the Dodgers would likely call up Xavier Paul from Albuquerque, and Paul was removed from a game in the third inning yesterday. But as True Blue LA reports, the removal was unrelated to Ethier's injury:
[Paul] was hit in the head with a thrown ball pre-game and complained of headaches during the game so he was removed and taken to a hospital for precautionary reasons, where he checked out okay.
That's at least a small measure of consolation for the Dodgers; if Ethier's grip is so affected by the injury that he needs to hit the DL, it's good that they wouldn't have to rely on Garret Anderson (current batting average: .143) the entire time. Nobody deserves such a fate.
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