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SAN DIEGO — Hours after placing All-Star outfielder Mike Trout on the 10-day injured list with a broken left wrist, the Los Angeles Angels saw their run of bad injury luck continue in their game Tuesday night against the San Diego Padres.
Third baseman Anthony Rendon was removed from the Angels’ 8-5 loss in the fourth inning after fouling a ball off his leg; the team said he has a left shin contusion and that X-rays were negative. Then, two-way star Shohei Ohtani departed with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand after giving up consecutive home runs to Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth with none out in the sixth inning.
The right-hander’s start had been pushed back a day due to a cracked nail, the same finger on which he developed the blister. His velocity was down Tuesday, and he left trailing 5-1. Ohtani made the last out at the plate in the top of the sixth and Jo Adell pinch hit for him in the ninth, delivering an RBI triple.
Ohtani left his previous start as a pitcher but remained in the game as the DH and homered, giving him 10 strikeouts and two home runs in a 4-2 win against the Chicago White Sox.
Both Rendon and Ohtani appeared to have avoided serious injury, a relief for the Angels after learning they will be without Trout for several weeks. The three-time AL MVP said he still anticipates returning this season despite a broken hamate bone suffered when he fouled off a pitch Monday night.
“Of course,” Trout said Tuesday, a few hours after the Angels announced he was placed on the injured list.
“I’ve had other guys reach out who’ve had this surgery before, or had this injury before. I don’t know if it’s going to need surgery or not. We’ll know in the next couple of days, I guess. Some guys came back in four weeks, some guys take a little longer just to see how their body heals.”
The slugger fouled off a 0-1 pitch from Nick Martinez leading off the eighth inning Monday and immediately shook his left arm. Angels manager Phil Nevin and a trainer came out to check on him and he left the game.
“I kind of knew it wasn’t good. It’s another freak thing,” Trout said. “It’s nothing crazy serious, so obviously I’m going to miss a little bit of time, but it’s not season-ending.”
Trout was selected to his 11th All-Star team on Sunday and 10th straight as a starter. He was hitting .263 with 18 home runs and 44 RBIs.
Trout said he had been feeling well before the injury and that it’s going to be tough to miss the All-Star Game.
“I was really looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s frustrating.”
Houston Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker will replace Trout on the AL roster.
Speaking to reporters before Tuesday’s game, Nevin said the team was going to get one more medical opinion on Trout’s wrist, “but usually these things need to be fixed. To be quite honest, when I went out there, I kind of had an idea. I’ve had players before that have done this, the feelings he had.
“When you feel something go or anything like that, you worry about a lot of things, but thankfully it’s a bone,” Nevin said. “It’s not a ligament or anything like that. Guys have come back from this and did fine and played. Mike will be back with us at some point this year. I know he’s hungry. I also know he’s hurting, too. It’s tough to see.”
Nevin said Mickey Moniak and Adell will fill in for Trout in center field. Adell was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake, along with right-hander Gerardo Reyes. Moniak started Tuesday against Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove. Moniak grew up in northern San Diego County and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 amateur draft by Philadelphia.
“Today, Mickey’s out there and he’s certainly been the guy who’s gone out there when Mike’s gone down before,” Nevin said. “I think somebody joked that I’ve given Mike six days off this year and we’ve won all six games, so we shouldn’t be so upset right now.”
Nevin said he spoke with players and the coaching staff to reassure them that the Angels are still in good shape. They’re two games above .500 and in third place in the AL West, seven games behind the Texas Rangers and four games out of the third wild-card spot.
Nevin said he doesn’t want Ohtani, who leads the majors with 31 homes, “to try to do too much. Obviously everybody’s like, ‘Well you’ve still got Shohei.’ He’s going to get his pitches to hit. You can’t walk him every time. He’s going to go up and take quality at-bats and not try to do too much.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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