MINNEAPOLIS: How long will Grady Sizemore be out of the Indians’ lineup this time?
So far, his injury is still being described as the same bone bruise of the right knee that put him on the disabled list from May 12 to May 27. But Sizemore was sent back to Cleveland on Monday for further evaluation after he was placed on the 15-day DL again.
The Tribe lineup is painfully thin without Sizemore and Shin-Soo Choo, who probably will remain on the DL until early September with a broken thumb.
“Grady plays through pain all the time,” manager Manny Acta said. “He’s done that the last three years pretty much. It’s very hard for him not to be out there with his teammates, and it’s hard for us, too.”
Sizemore reinjured his knee in the first inning of Sunday’s 8-3 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards, when he made the turn at first on his way to second with a double. A bone bruise (which is inside the bone) can become aggravated without bumping the knee or having the knee involved in a collision.
Ever since he returned from the DL, Sizemore probably has been playing with some discomfort.
“I’m not 22 anymore,” he said over the weekend, before tweaking the knee. “I never really feel 100 percent. But I feel good. The last two months everything has been moving forward.”
On Monday, however, he told a reporter that after his latest mishap, his knee felt similar to that of his left knee, which underwent microfracture surgery last year. According to Sizemore, the kind of pain and the location of the pain reminded him of the more serious previous injury.
Tests at the Cleveland Clinic, probably today, will determine if Sizemore’s fears are unfounded or not. If it turns out that his affliction is a deep contusion, he probably will have to manage the pain for the rest of the season. Bone bruises can take months to totally heal.
Acta said that without Sizemore in the lineup, Ezequiel Carrera will get most of the at-bats in center field; Austin Kearns and Travis Buck will platoon in right for Choo.
“You can’t program yourself to not play hard when you’re a guy like Grady,” Acta said. “You see how he throws himself around the outfield and dives for balls. You can’t ask a guy like him to take it easy.”
When Sizemore came off the DL in late May, his timing and rhythm at the plate seemed to have left him. But in his past six games, he was batting .350 (7-for-20) with one home run and two doubles.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters. Follow the Indians on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ABJ_Indians.
