San Francisco Giants Starter Ryan Vogelsong Fractures Pitching Hand

It’s been a woeful start to the season for San Francisco Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong, but somehow, it manged to get worse tonight.

Vogelsong, who was in the midst of his best start of the season, shutting out the Washington Nationals through five innings, attempted to swing at a pitch in the bottom of the fifth inning. The pitch ran in and went up the knuckle/hand of Vogelsong, immediately resulting in Vogelsong dropping the bat and whipping his arm around his back and he walked around in foul territory, clearly in pain.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy and head trainer Dave Groeschner rushed to Vogelsong’s aid as the Giants starter was removing his batting glove. Groeschner gave his hand an overlook and then quickly wrapped the hand in a towel, rushing into the dugout tunnel to the AT&T Park x-ray machine which revealed a fractured pitching hand.

There has been no estimated timetable of return yet, though, fractures to pitching hands usually result in a 6-8 week recovery – a devastating blow to the Giants’ starting rotation.

Vogelsong came into the game with an eye popping 8.06 ERA, though he had a 3.37 ERA in 2012 and 2.71 in 2011 and at least for a night, looked every bit the part of the strong arm Giant faithful have become accustom to.

Update: Vogelsong’s wife says he’s out 6 weeks, minimum.

"Ryan has a dislocated joint in the pinky finger of his pitching hand. It’s broken above & below finger. Surgery tomorrow, out 6 weeks"