X-rays negative after Correa hurts thumb
ATLANTA — Astros All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa exited the team’s 16-4 win against the Braves on Tuesday night after jamming his left thumb on a headfirst slide at home plate in the fourth inning. X-rays came back negative.
After the game, Correa said his thumb felt “a little sore” but that it was “nothing crazy.” The team lists his status as day-to-day.
“Hopefully, I can be in there (Wednesday),” Correa said. “I’ve got to see how I wake up.”
Correa suffered the injury, which the Astros described as “left thumb discomfort,” when he inadvertently jammed his thumb into the shin guards of Braves catcher Tyler Flowers during his slide.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch said he liked Correa’s aggressiveness, but “the headfirst slide is very dangerous.”
“But it’s a split-second decision,” Hinch said. “It’s hard to fault a guy for trying to work around the catcher. It happens all the time.”
Correa, 22, went 1-for-2 Tuesday to extend his hitting streak to 13 games.
Keuchel’s rehab to face key test
Astros ace Dallas Keuchel could progress beyond playing catch by week’s end.
Manager A.J. Hinch said Tuesday the Astros are hopeful Keuchel can test himself off a mound while the team is in Toronto on Thursday through Sunday. Clearing that hurdle would provide more clarity on a timetable for a minor league rehab outing and then Keuchel’s return to the Astros’ rotation.
Keuchel, selected Sunday for his second All-Star team, hasn’t pitched since June 2 because of a recurrence of a pinched nerve in his neck. The Astros have been ultraconservative in his rehab given it’s his second DL stint for this issue.
“He still feels strong. His arm feels good. His legs are strong,” Hinch said. “But a month is too long to go in between major league outings (without a rehab outing).”
A return during the Astros’ first series of the second half against the Twins appears out of the question at this point. But if Keuchel makes a rehab start that first weekend of the second half, it could set him up to come off the DL during the Astros’ series at Baltimore on July 21-23.
Odds and ends
Lance McCullers Jr. will make his final start of the first half Thursday at Toronto, which makes him available to pitch in the All-Star Game on Tuesday. … A.J. Hinch decided to start Mike Fiers on Saturday and Charlie Morton on Friday opposed to vice versa because Fiers threw 105 pitches Sunday. … Collin McHugh is set for roughly three innings and up to 50 pitches in his second rehab start Wednesday at Class AA Corpus Christi.