Texas Rangers’ pitcher Cole Hamels is expected to be out for two months, due to a right oblique strain.
The Rangers received terrible news Wednesday afternoon, as Cole Hamels was diagnosed with a right oblique strain. Hamels was held out of his last scheduled start on Tuesday due to feeling tightness in his oblique, and an MRI on Wednesday confirmed the strain. The injury will hold him out of action for at least the next two months.
It’s a tough blow for Texas as they have stumbled out of the gate early on with an 11-16 record, and now they will have to add one of their star pitchers to the disabled list. Hamels certainly wasn’t to blame for their early season struggles, as he posted a 2-0 record, with a solid 3.03 ERA in the five games he appeared in so far this season.
Cole Hamels has been placed on 10 day DL with right oblique strain that will sideline him about 8 weeks.
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) May 3, 2017
The Rangers pitching rotation has suffered injuries early on, as A.J. Griffin has been on the disabled list, and Tyson Ross is still recovering from an injury he suffered at the beginning of last season. This will be the longest amount of time that Hamels has been out during his superb MLB career.
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Fortunately for the Rangers, there is still a lot of baseball left to be played. With that said though, it will not be an easy climb back as they currently trail the red hot Houston Astros for their division lead by seven games. The Rangers will have to rely on their bottom-tier rotation starters to out-pitch some of their peripherals, and hope that their other star pitcher, Yu Darvish, can remain healthy over the course of the season.