Piña’s concussion turned out to be worse than thought
ST. LOUIS – Milwaukee Brewers catcher Manny Piña never thought he'd miss this many games after taking a hard foul tip off his mask off the bat of Chicago's Addison Russell in a game Sept. 5 at Miller Park.
Piña missed his ninth consecutive game Saturday with lingering concussion symptoms as Yasmani Grandal continued to make starts behind the plate. But Piña finally has felt good enough to participate in limited pregame activity in recent days, giving hope that he'll be able to play again soon.
“I was on the field in Miami and I didn't feel very well,” Piña said. “They stopped me for a couple of days. Yesterday was good, today was good so I hope tomorrow everything goes good. If so, I think I can play in a couple of days.”
Piña said he'll have to catch some bullpen sessions to replicate a catcher's workload behind the plate before being allowed to play in games again.
“That's the final step,” said Piña, who has started 36 games and appeared in 35 others, mostly as a pinch-hitter. “I have to squat, stand up, block (pitches), all that stuff. I think I'll do it tomorrow and see how it goes.”
Asked what symptoms he had in the days after suffering the concussion, Piña said, “I felt a little pressure in my head. I had a headache. The music on the field was bothering me, loud noises.
“That was my worst one. I've had some before where I missed three or four days. I didn't feel very good those first three days. But I'm starting to feel normal now. Today's a big day for me to go outside and do some agility stuff, move around more.”
Grandal had caught every inning since Piña was injured until Friday night, when Jacob Nottingham spelled him for the final two innings of the 10-0 loss to St. Louis.
“We have to go by how Manny feels and what he says before we move forward,” manager Craig Counsell said. “The thing about concussions, you have to exert yourself to make sure none of the symptoms come back.”
Hiura closer to returning
Also doing more pre-game activity was second baseman Keston Hiura, who took part in all drills – hitting, fielding and running – for the first time since suffering a strained left hamstring 15 days earlier in a game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He is expected to test it with some pinch-hit appearances before returning to the lineup to play a full game.
“It's feeling better,” Hiura said. “It's just a matter of time and feeling confident in being able to go full-time. It has been two weeks. For a Grade 2 hamstring strain, that's still fairly quick. I've got to be patient with it. There's a possible pinch-hit in this series and we'll go from there.
“A ‘hammy' injury is not something you take lightly. You've definitely got to be careful as you move forward with it. I pulled it a little bit in 2017, the year I got drafted, and it took about two to three weeks for that one. That's kind of my timetable.”
Hiura did some fairly aggressive baserunning in a workout on the final day the Brewers were in Miami and is getting a few days of rest before testing it again in that manner.
“I'm sure I'll have to do that again (before playing a game),” he said. “I just want to be confident about it. Obviously, I want to be back in there and help the team anyway I can.”
Shaw still can’t get going
When Travis Shaw returned from a third stint with Class AAA San Antonio on Aug. 31, he expressed hope of getting some positive results in September to feel better about being in a season-long slump at the plate. Instead, his woes have continued with a 0-for-20 spell that dropped his batting average to .151 with a .523 OPS.
Shaw got some starts at third base when Mike Moustakas was sidelined with a bruised hand but Moustakas is back now and Shaw hasn't done anything to warrant more playing time. So, he is running out of time to extract anything positive from what has been a nightmarish season.
“We could have changed the story, directionally, a little bit but this was going to go down as a rough season for Travis,” Counsell said. “You can only hear ‘keep your head up' so many times. We all understand it's frustrating and it stinks to go through it. The job requires you to keep going.”
“From my perspective, the at-bats might not be there but there's still a chance to make a huge impact on a game in September. That's why we keep him and that's what I keep telling him. That's what keeps him going. There's a chance to win a game, there's a chance to win two games.
“You never know when that big atbat is going to come and you want to come through in that big at-bat. It could mean everything.”