Amidst all the drama surrounding Masahiro Tanaka and his elbow, the Yankees suffered another strange injury. After the game it was revealed that Carlos Beltran suffered a broken nose during batting practice. Beltran, who was originally in last night’s lineup after sitting for the past two games with a knee issue, was in the cage and a batted ball hit the post in corner of the protective cage and bounced back and hit him in face. The freakish incident resulted in Beltran suffering two small fractures to his nose. Manager Joe Girardi had no choice but to scratch Beltran from the lineup and insert Derek Jeter in as the DH.
Right now Beltran’s status is still up in the air, he experienced a severe headache after the incident and is a concern that Beltran might have suffered a slight concussion. He was not placed on the disabled list, but Girardi doesn’t know what’s next for the aging slugger. “I don’t know what it’s going to be yet, It’s a freak, freak injury. You can only change the lineup so many times and then you run out of people. It’s difficult. I have to figure out what we’re going to do.” said Giradi in his post game interview.
Beltran on the other hand seemed a lot more optimistic after the game, felt there was chance he would be ok and available to play in Thursday’s game. “I had a headache for the whole day but now it’s getting better,” said Beltran. “Hopefully tomorrow it will get better and I could be back soon, but I don’t know what the team’s going to do. With the concussion things, teams take that serious. Honestly, I don’t feel like I have that. But at the end of the day, it’s not my decision.” Beltran was feeling a lot better in the clubhouse afterwards and said his vision is not affected by the injury. There was a little swelling around his face, but seemed like he was ok. While there is a chance Beltran could miss some time, it doesn’t seem like there will be a need from him to be placed on the DL. The biggest concern regarding this injury is the concussion aspect, hopefully Beltran wakes up this morning and feels fine. The training staff will reevaluate Beltran today and then a decision will be made.
