Josh Hamilton And Nelson Cruz Return To Rangers

After losing Hamilton, the Rangers went 15-21. While that can’t be completely attributed to losing last year’s MVP, his return along with Cruz’s gives the Rangers the lineup with which they started the season, and that team was almost unbeatable. Cruz was off to a bit of a slow start before his injury, hitting .219/.303/.438 over 105 at-bats, while Hamilton hit .333/.409/.462 in 38 at-bats before his fateful scramble towards home.

The Rangers are likely playing it safe with their star player, while Hamilton is probably pacing back and forth like a caged animal as you read this. Still, the idea that Hamilton is ready for any sort of baseball activity is good news for Texas.

Anthony Andro:

Hamilton sustained a fracture of his humerus bone while trying to score on a wild pitch that didn’t bounce too far away from home plate on April 12. He was expected to be out for six to eight weeks, and it looks like that’s still the schedule.

He said he hadn’t spoke to third-base coach Dave Anderson, and hasn’t changed his tune on the decision to try to score on a foul popup just to the left of the infield. He’s aware that he essentially threw Anderson under the bus, but said he was just explaining the situation. “Dumb,” he said. “People are going to blame who they want to blame. I threw him under the bus by telling the truth about what happened.“The initial reaction from Hamilton was first seen as an injury-prone player blowing off steam after suffering yet another serious injury, but it’s clear that Hamilton still sees something fundamentally wrong with the decision to tag up. It was an aggressive play, though some might argue that the real unnecessary risk came from Hamilton’s head-first slide.

We already knew about Josh Hamilton’s injury. What we didn’t know was the severity. Now we know the severity. It’s bad news.

Hamilton was injured attempting this head-first slide into home plate:

The good news is that preliminary x-rays on Hamilton’s shoulder have ruled out a separation or a dislocation, but Hamilton says he heard two pops as he slid, and we probably won’t know the severity of his injury until MRI results are revealed Wednesday morning. After the game, Hamilton was wearing a sling.