When you hear the arguments about the designated hitter, and about how it’s too dangerous to expect starting pitchers – so focused on pitching – to go up there and hit, you don’t so much think about THIS kind of injury.
The Cardinals are going to be without starter Carlos Martinez for a little while. Why? He’s going on the Injured List with an ankle injury. Why? Because he hurt it … celebrating a Jack Flaherty home run:
On #Cardinals duty again today, and we’ve got an injury update. Martínez said he’d hurt his ankle celebrating Jack Flaherty’s home run on Friday. https://t.co/C2hPIT2cmu
— Ryan Herrera (@ryan_a_herrera) May 11, 2021
Can’t say I’ve heard that one before – pitcher injures fellow pitcher by hitting a home run worthy of an aggressive celebration.
Martinez tried to pitch through the injury initially, going just five very ugly innings the next day (5 ER, 6 H, 5 BB, 2 K). The ankle was apparently bothering him when pushing off, and it must not have gotten much better in the interim.
Carlos Martinez says he hurt his right ankle when he slipped celebrating Jack Flaherty's home run Friday night, and that caused pain during his pushup/delivery today. He lacked power and that contributed to his lack of command at times. #Cardinals #stlcards
— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) May 8, 2021
Until that injured start, Martinez had actually been pitching very well for the Cardinals in his move back into the rotation, so this is a blow. They are already without Jordan Hicks for a while and have yet to get Miles Mikolas back. That is to say, the NL Central leader’s pitching isn’t quite at full strength.
At least it was an impressive homer: