Houston Astros speedster Jonathan Villar expects to avoid the disabled list after hurting his hand during last night’s game against the Boston Red Sox.
The rookie shortstop was injured in the third inning during an unsuccessful steal. Villar remained in the game but later aggravated the injury on a fielding attempt and had to be removed.
Thankfully though, post-game tests showed nothing more than a sprained left thumb and Villar believes he’ll be back in the lineup by the end of the week, at the latest:
"According to Villar, he will miss two days with the injury, though the Astros do have Thursday off.The speedy rookie fell awkwardly onto his glove hand while trying to stop a ball up the middle hit by David Ortiz from reaching the outfield before getting up and committing an error on the throw home as Shane Victorino came around to score.However, manager Bo Porter said the rookie had actually injured the thumb when he was caught stealing at third base during the fourth inning.“He did it on a slide into third base, so it was sore when we went out to talk to him [in the sixth],” Porter said. “We took him out to try to get the soreness under control and treat it. It was already bothering him at that point.”"
While not a highly touted prospect, Villar has made the most of his call-up, swiping 10 bases in 15 games.