Tonight, the Tigers added yet another player to the already-long list of guys who are in need of medical attention.
At some point early in the Wednesday night game against the Hiroshima Carp (which ended in a 3-3 tie), captain Kento Itohara broke the hamate bone in his right hand and will likely need at least two months to fully recover. He will be deactivated tomorrow, ending his 311-game ironman streak.
Before him, Justin Bour pulled a buttock muscle on Saturday night, and has not played since. The good news is that he has not been deactivated, and in fact practiced with the team today. It is possible he will return to action tomorrow.
However, there are other injuries that have hurt the team’s depth. Jefry Marte went down with a pulled left calf muscle on July 4 in Hiroshima, and was deactivated on the 11th.
As for pitchers, Koki Moriya (June 25), Jon Edwards (June 26), and Kyuji Fujikawa (July 12) have all been de-activated this season due to arm issues, and before them, Hiroya Shimamoto, Kentaro Kuwahara, and Haruto Takahashi all had problems before season’s start and have not seen any top-squad action in 2020 yet. And I almost forgot about Joe Gunkel. He got called up to fill the spot vacated by Kyuji, but was de-activated two days later due to back pains. He has played in just one game this season so far.
That’s three starting fielders, two starting pitchers, and five relievers who need to get healthy in order for this team to keep on rolling. They are currently on a 11-2-1 roll since being swept by the Chunichi Dragons at the start of July.
Can you think of better timing for Shintaro Fujinami‘s 2020 debut? Didn’t think so. Neither can I.