Gavin Sheets was smiling a bit as he walked off the field Sunday afternoon, so Padres manager Mike Shildt had the green light to add even more levity as he discussed the aftermath of his 6-foot-3, 235-pound slugger slamming face first into the padded wall in left field after running 85 feet at 23.9 mph as he tried to make a play on Adam Frazier’s fourth-inning homer.
“I think the fence is OK,” Shildt said after a 6-4 win over the Pirates. “I’m not sure. I think Mat Balough, the groundskeeper, is going to check on it, and I’ll get you an update on the wall.”
Shildt said Sheets is day-to-day with a head contusion, a sore hip and a jammed wrist and thumb. The hip is the sorest spot of the ailments on that checklist, while the team is still testing for concussion symptoms.
“Those are tests that take a while,” Shildt said. “There’s some symptoms that they want make sure they either don’t show up or go away, and so we’re still in the process of evaluating that.”
Sheets walked briefly through the clubhouse after the game, but did not speak with the media. He was expected to be on the plane to San Francisco.
Which is good news for a team that can’t afford to be without one of its most potent hitters.
Sheets’ 34 RBIs lead the Padres and his 11 home runs are second on the team. A significant portion of that production has come in the past two weeks, as the rest of the Padres’ offense has hardly existed.
Six of his home runs and 12 of his RBIs had come in the 13 games leading up to Sunday, a span in which the rest of the Padres hit seven homers and drove in 25 runs.
He has seven go-ahead RBIs, fourth on the team, and seven game-tying RBIs, which lead the team.
It was on Frazier’s home run leading off the fourth inning that Sheets was injured.
Sheets reached up at the last instant while running face-first into the wall. His left shoulder hit the wall just before his face did, and his arm was then caught between his body and the wall.
Sheets immediately bounced off the wall as the ball bounced up off the top wall and into seats.
As Sheets lay on his back on the warning track, Jackson Merrill ran over from center field and knelt over Sheets. He put his hand on his chest and motioned with his glove toward the dugout.
Athletic trainer Ben Fraser and Shildt ran out, followed by head athletic trainer Mark Rogow.
Sheets stayed on his back for a few minutes before sitting up and then quickly standing.
By that time, some smiles had been cracked.
Behind the group, the area of the padded wall where Sheets’ arm had hit remained indented.
As Sheets walked in with the trainers and Shildt, there were more smiles and laughter.
“He already in the last couple hours … is improving,” Shildt said. “But he’s a little banged up, understandably. What an effort.”
Michael King talks
Michael King did not pitch Sunday, but he caught himself wondering — tongue in cheek — if he had pitched as reporters crowded around him after he dressed Sunday afternoon.
King had not been in the clubhouse all week during media availability, so he attempted to add some clarity to the pinched nerve that sent him to the injured list last weekend.
“I think figuring out what it was, went through all the different tests and everything came back clean, which is great,” King said. “I think the thing that we now know is that it was probably a pinched nerve that shut down some, like, muscle function. And now that I went through all the tests and everything was clear, it’s really just building up that muscle again, so it’s definitely making progress, and I’m feeling a lot better than I did a week ago.”
King has played light catch a couple of times to keep the arm moving. He expects the ramp-up to be measured in days, but he is not close enough to join the team on the trip to San Francisco. Instead, he expects to visit with specialists to address any unanswered questions ahead of a return.
The timetable on that is TBD.
“I don’t know if there is an understanding. Dr. (Bryan Leek) with us has said that he has seen a lot of progress in me, so he doesn’t expect it to be very long. He said that he’s seen some guys take a couple days, some guys take a couple months, and I think that I’m more on the former of that just because the progress I’ve had.”
A step forward?
Yu Darvish threw six or seven pitches from the bullpen Saturday, played catch on Sunday morning and feels good enough to progress to the next step: A bullpen in San Francisco, either on Monday or Tuesday.
That will be his first full session since throwing 51 pitches in four innings in a rehab start at Las Vegas on May 14.
“I’m just excited,” Darvish said. “Feel good. Just sucks when I get hurt, can’t throw the ball, but now it’s good, so I’m happy.”
Notable
- RHP Matt Waldron was optioned to Triple-A El Paso on Sunday, marking the end of his rehab assignment. He made his last start on Friday, so he will not be the pitcher called up for Tuesday’s start in San Francisco. RHP Ryan Bergert last started for Triple-A El Paso on Wednesday and would be on five days rest on Tuesday.
Originally Published:
