Red Sox catcher Reese McGuire appears to have avoided a serious injury scare after taking a hard-hit foul tip off the top of his throwing hand in the late stages of Saturday night’s 5-4 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field.
McGuire had X-rays that revealed no broken bones in his right hand, which was struck by a Willy Adames foul tip in the bottom of the eighth inning. The 28-year-old remained in the game and even hit in the top of the ninth. That, in part, was due to the fact that McGuire had already pinch-hit for Connor Wong in the seventh, meaning the Red Sox had no other available catchers to come off the bench.
McGuire, who flew out to end the game, expressed optimism that he would not need to miss any time with the injury when speaking with reporters (including MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo) on Saturday night.
“It’s a little swollen, a little bruised,” McGuire said. “But I just got some X-rays and all is negative. That’s really good news. I had a smile on my face because it was kind of throbbing. I’m going to go get ice right after this and be ready for tomorrow.”
After McGuire was hit by Adames’ foul tip, Red Sox manager Alex Cora and a member of the team’s training staff went out to check on him. Athletic tape was applied to McGuire’s hand, but the backstop quickly removed it after some of his practice throws to reliever Kutter Crawford were off the mark.
With no true emergency catcher on the roster according to Cora, McGuire toughed it out and caught the rest of the inning. As noted by Cotillo, first baseman Triston Casas — who did not play on Saturday — was the only other player left on Boston’s bench.
“He didn’t fight it,” Cora said of McGuire. “He was like, ‘(expletive) it, let’s go, we’ve got to go.’ It’s not perfect but this is the nature of everybody’s roster. There’s certain games you have to be aggressive to hit for them.”
Though the ball caught McGuire in a familiar spot for foul tips, McGuire acknowledged that the pain lingered more it usually does.
“As a catcher, you’re kind of used to getting baseballs all over,” he said. “I got some on the forearm the other night. It’s one of those things you shake off at first but that one kind of stung. When I looked down, it was starting to swell up a little bit. Life of a catcher right there.”
McGuire and Wong, who have started nine and 13 games behind the plate, respectively, are currently the only two catchers on Boston’s 40-man roster. The Red Sox do have a plethora of catching depth (Jorge Alfaro, Caleb Hamilton, and Ronaldo Hernandez) at Triple-A Worcester, but they would need to clear a 40-man spot in order to add either of them to the active roster.
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