New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo fractured two fingers after being hit on the right hand during Saturday’s 9-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Rizzo was hit while leading off the bottom of the seventh inning. After being tended to by Yankees head athletic trainer Tim Lentych, Rizzo remained in the game and took first base. When the game moved to the top of the eighth, he was replaced in the field.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone confirmed after the game that Rizzo fractured two fingers but was not ready to rule him out for the playoffs.
“We’ll see what we have as the week moves forward,” Boone said via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. “It doesn’t totally rule him out. It’s something that is a pain tolerance thing, so we’ll see as the days unfold here what we have.”
Should Rizzo be unavailable for the Yankees in the ALDS, Boone brought up Oswaldo Cabrera and Ben Rice as replacement options.
Rizzo has been hit eight times in 335 at-bats this season and 222 times over his 14-year career, the eighth-most in MLB history
Earlier this season, Rizzo missed 62 games after fracturing his right forearm during a collision with Boston Red Sox reliever Brennan Bernardino in June. Since returning to the lineup on Sept. 1, he’s batting .380 with eight hits and seven RBI.
“He’s been giving us really good at-bats too at the bottom of the order,” Boone said of Rizzo. “We’ll see what we have moving forward. I don’t want to jump to anything. We’ll see how he responds in the next several days before we kick things off in a week.”
The Yankees clinched the AL East title this week and will not begin their postseason until Saturday, Oct. 5, which gives Rizzo a week to see if he’ll be available.
