Tulo hurt badly in crash landing
Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki suffered a fractured shoulder blade as well as upper back muscle bruises when he collided with center fielder Kevin Pillar while recording the final out of the second inning in Saturday’s doubleheader opener.
Manager John Gibbons said it would be “a few days” before the club has a better idea for a timetable on his return.
Tulowitzki, one of the Jays’ major trade deadline acquisitions who helped them take off in the AL East, had X-rays at the Stadium that were negative but was sent for an MRI exam, which revealed the break.
The five-time All-Star missed 113 games to a groin injury in 2012 and 64 to a hip injury in 2014.
Tulowitzki was drifting back on Didi Gregorius’ pop fly with two out in the second inning. Pillar was coming in on the ball and ran into the backpedaling shortstop. Tulowitzki made the catch. It was fairly hard contact, with Pillar hitting Tulowitzki in the upper back and possibly the neck. Tulowitzki had a strange delayed reaction after getting hit, turning to see Pillar go down before falling backwards to the ground. Tulowitzki dropped the ball but umpire Chris Guccione was clear in his call that it was an out.
Tulowitzki was attended to by Jays medical personnel and was able to walk to the dugout.
WARREN REPORT
Yankees relievers allowed five runs in 52⁄3 innings of the first game and four runs in 71⁄3 innings of the second. None of them was Adam Warren, who some might have expected to see in the opener after Justin Wilson, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller had pitched and it was still tied after 10 frames.
Warren threw 47 pitches out of the bullpen on Wednesday and Joe Girardi said he had decided beforehand that Warren wouldn’t appear on Saturday. He hadn’t thrown that many pitches in a game since July 31.
Girardi added that it had much less to do with looking to the next series in Tampa Bay, where Warren could be a spot starter on Monday or Tuesday.
STRO’ YEAH!
Long Island product Marcus Stroman got the win in the nightcap, making his season debut few thought would happen after he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee in spring training.
Stroman, who went 11-6 with a 3.65 ERA last year, didn’t allow a hit over the first four innings but ended up giving up three runs over five frames before the game was delayed by rain. He gave up four hits in the fifth including Brett Gardner’s three-run homer . . . Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run home run in the opener, his 31st of the season to pull into a tie with Mark Teixeira for the team lead. A-Rod, who heard some boos on Friday after striking out four times, will be honored before Sunday’s series finale for getting his 3,000th hit in June.