By Dejan Kovacevic | 4:06 p.m. Tuesday
Pirates closer Matt Capps will be out until the weekend because of minor discomfort in his right elbow, manager John Russell said. The elbow was examined with an MRI this afternoon, and it was determined that there was no ligament or other structural damage. Three days' rest was prescribed.
Capps gave up four runs on three hits and a walk in blowing his first save last night, two runs on five hits Saturday night. That swelled his ERA to 7.56. But he still was throwing his fastball at his standard 93-95 mph.
"The velocity was still there, so that's a good sign, too," Russell said. "We're just giving him a rest, and we think he should be fine by this weekend. He already felt a lot better today, and we'll see how he feels here in the next little while. You don't want someone pitching through that kind of irritation, so this is the best way to go."
John Grabow and Tyler Yates will share closer duties in the interim, Russell said.
UPDATE 4:45 p.m.: I just spoke extensively with Capps, and this sure sounds like a best-case scenario. The actual injury is a bruised bone in the upper back of the elbow, with some blood flow having been cut off there. The ligaments, as examined by Dr. Patrick DeMeo, the Pirates' team physician, is in excellent shape. Or, as Capps called it, "fat."
Capps initially felt discomfort after pitching Saturday and had two days of treatment leading up to last night. It was when he went to take off his shirt that his elbow hurt. "Like a knife going through it," he said.
He took that information to athletic trainer Brad Henderson, who correctly determined on the spot that there was no ligament issue just by doing some exercises with the arm. But the MRI was ordered for today to be sure.
Capps had an anti-inflammatory shot in his left shoulder -- not the elbow, which would have delayed his return -- and was told he could resume throwing when comfortable. His plan is to throw on the side Thursday in St. Louis and be available to pitch Friday in New York.
"From how worried I was this morning to now, it's a huge relief," Capps said.
For those wondering how a bone can be bruised without being struck, here is how Capps demonstrated it to me: Hold your arm in a pitching motion, then extend it fully. Picture that bone just above the elbow colliding into the bone that connects to the shoulder. Then picture doing it repeatedly and with great force. This happens to pitchers, on occasion, where the bone just gets tired of the pounding.
Posted
May 05 2009, 04:06 PM
by
Dejan Kovacevic