While the Los Angeles Dodgers saw the returns of Yasmani Grandal and Howie Kendrick a mere seven games into the regular season, they’ve continue to fall victim to the injury bug that bit them during Spring Training.
Carl Crawford and Scott Van Slyke both landed on the disabled list due to a back injury, and Pedro Baez recently suffered a scare as he was hit on the back of the head by an Adam Liberatore warmup pitch.
Baez was sent for tests and passed concussion protocol in Atlanta, though didn’t pitch until Friday night’s series opener against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Baez was followed by Yimi Garcia, who entered in the seventh inning with the Dodgers holding a slim 5-4 lead.
Garcia gave up a leadoff single and issued a walk to put the tying and go-ahead runners on base with no outs; a sacrifice bunt and sac-fly tied the game. Garcia then threw a couple pitches to Trevor Story, but was unable to finish the at-bat.
Garcia appeared to shake his right arm, which prompted Dodgers assistant athletic trainer Nate Lucero and manager Dave Roberts to pay a visit to the mound. The right-hander was removed after a brief conversation and replaced by Adam Liberatore, who struck out Story to end the inning.
According to Andy McCullough of the LA Times, Garcia came out of the game due to right biceps soreness:
Yimi Garcia had right biceps soreness. He is being evaluated.
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) April 23, 2016
Garcia admitted to being concerned over the injury:
Yimi Garcia felt a strain in his muscle on the mound. "I'm a little worried. No one wants that to happen."
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) April 23, 2016
Friday’s appearance was the ninth of the season for Garcia. He began the day with a 3.24 ERA, 2.38 FIP, 1.20 WHIP and averaging 4.7 strikeouts per nine innings. An update on Garcia’s status was not available at the time of this writing.
