Odorizzi heading to IL with foot injury
ARLINGTON — The Astros placed starter Jake Odorizzi on the 10-day injured list Tuesday, one day after the righthander injured his right foot while covering first base.
Odorizzi received an MRI before Tuesday’s game and was not available for interviews to provide more specificites about his injury. He left his start Monday after 11⁄3 innings. Manager Dusty Baker said Odorizzi could put no weight on his right foot after hitting the bag awkwardly while recording a putout against the Rangers’ Nick Solak.
Odorizzi showed no immediate signs of discomfort but grimaced after throwing two warmup pitches upon his return to the mound.
“We were shocked when he called us out,” Baker said Tuesday. “A lot of times, you really can’t tell when a guy hurts something, especially when it comes in the areas where you have a lot of bones in. You don’t have to do much to injure them.”
Odorizzi has never spent time on the injured list due to a foot problem in his 10-year career. He strained a forearm muscle in late April, causing him to miss 29 games.
Odorizzi’s injury ruined the Astros’ plans for a six-man starting rotation during this stretch of 17 consecutive games. Baker intimated Tuesday the team will stick with a traditional five-man configuration.
“We’ll go (day-to-day) on what we need,” Baker said. “A lot of it depends on how (the starters) perform. To go back to a sixman, you have to have six starters that you feel are ready and capable and able to handle it. You don’t want to go to six just to go to six. You have to feel very fortunate in the fact we had six.”
Houston could benefit from giving rookie Luis Garcia an extra day of rest during the stretch with a spot start. Two options seem to exist should they choose it.
Peter Solomon is on the 40-man roster and stretched out as a starter at Class AAA Sugar Land, where he sports a 4.70 ERA and 10.3 strikeouts per nine in 97 2⁄3 innings. Long relievers Cristian Javier and Brandon Bielak could take a game, too, as part of a tandem.
Brantley’s knee still keeping him sidelined
Michael Brantley’s bothersome right knee will sideline him for the remainder of the Astros’ series against the Rangers, but Baker is hopeful Brantley is able to DH “by Friday.”
Brantley has not played since leaving Saturday’s 4-2 loss
against the Angels after three innings. The Astros have not specified how Brantley suffered the injury or its severity.
“He is doing a lot better. We don’t really want to put him on the IL and lose him for 10 days if he’d be ready to come back in four or five,” Baker said before Tuesday’s game. “We’ve been the walking wounded a lot this year. That’s where we are right now. We just have to fill in with some capable substitutes, and hopefully we get some quality play out of whoever’s out there.”
The turf at Globe Life Field is no doubt factoring into Baker’s decision. Playing on the surface in May precipitated Brantley’s only stint on the injured list this
season. He missed 12 games with right hamstring soreness that Baker said resulted from playing defense on the turf.
In Brantley’s absence, Baker is cycling through Jake Meyers, Chas McCormick and Jose Siri in left field. McCormick started Tuesday’s game in left, with Siri in center.
Peña remains hot in Skeeters’ victory
Jeremy Peña continued his hot streak with a homer and three RBIs as the Sugar Land Skeeters beat the Express 6-3 at Round Rock on Tuesday night.
Peña went 3-for-4 and is hitting .483 (14-for-29) over his last
seven games. He hit a solo homer in the first inning and had a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth to put Sugar Land up 3-1.
Taylor Jones had an RBI single to make it 4-1, and Robel Garcia completed the Skeeters’ scoring in the ninth with a tworun homer.
Sugar Land’s magic number for winning the East Division of Triple-A West is one. The Skeeters, whose next game is Thursday at home against Albuquerque, will secure the division with their next win or Oklahoma City’s next loss.