The 96.6 mph fastball that slammed into catcher Samuel Basallo’s right wrist last night in the ninth inning didn’t cause a fracture and might not keep the rookie from playing this weekend in New York.
Basallo had the wrist wrapped this morning after being hit by Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks and leaving the game in obvious pain.
“I tried to react but I didn’t have enough time to do so,” he said via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “Hand's feeling much better today. Couldn’t really feel it yesterday. Thankfully today I’m feeling better.”
Asked about appearing in the final series, Basallo said, “Yes, I think it’s going to be something day-to-day right now. They’re giving me a day to see how I feel and hopefully I’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
“I think he’ll be in there tomorrow,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino.
“He grabbed a bat this morning, took some swings. I think its another one of those scenarios where if this is a must win I could see him probably playing today, but it’s probably wise to give him a blow.”
Second baseman Jackson Holliday remains out of the lineup with knee soreness and he underwent an MRI earlier today.
“I’m hopeful he’s in there tomorrow,” Mansolino said. “I know he told me this morning that he felt better. That’s always a good sign. But we’ll see kind of what it looks like the next couple days, once we have a better idea what the results are.”
Mansolino didn’t recall which knee.
“He’s got two of them, though.”
Albert Suárez is shut down for the rest of the season with elbow soreness and is waiting to be examined again. The inflammation must go down before he can get another MRI and keep an appointment with Dr. Keith Meister on Oct. 7.
“We’ll see what he sees on the MRI and then go from there,” Suárez said.
Suárez missed about five months with a shoulder injury, pitched four times and came down with elbow discomfort.
“I mean, it’s hard not to be healthy, but mentally I’m good,” he said. “I just need to make sure I heal and get ready.”
The Orioles are starting Trevor Rogers, Tomoyuki Sugano and Kyle Bradish at Yankee Stadium to close out the season.
Mansolino isn’t treating the last three games as a way to get some guys on the field and coast to a finish. He won’t script pitching. It still matters, and not just for the Yankees.
“We’re gonna try to win,” Mansolino said. “There might be a scenario where we jam somebody in there, but we’re trying to win those games without a doubt. We’ll do the best we can out of respect to the rest of the industry and the other teams.
“I don’t think that we mess around with that. I think we do the best we can and kind of let the chips fall where they may.”