During a game on July 20th vs. the Boston Red Sox, Eric Hosmer took a fast ball high and way in and hit him in the hand. It seemed to just been really swollen but in the 6th inning of the Kansas City Royals game last night he was removed and further X-rays have shown that Hosmer as a non-displaced stress fracture of the 3rd metacarpal bone in his hand. This injury could possibly sideline the Royals first basemen for up to six weeks which is a crushing blow to a team that is in the heat of a playoff run.
The Royals enter August 1st only behind the Detroit Tigers by 4 games in the AL Central, and only 3.5 back on the wild card. With two months left in the season, they are 100% still in this race also considering they have six games left vs. the Tigers three at home and three on the road. Here’s the huge reason the Royals are not hanging there head, they don’t play the Tigers until September 8th which is around 5 weeks into this recovery period. In the month of August, the Royals’ scheduled opponents are only a combined winning percentage of 41% and Hosmer said in the locker room after the game that he only expects to be out the minimum of 3 weeks.
Yes this is a huge blow for the Royals, however if they can get contributions across the board from whoever they use to replace Hosmer they will be perfectly fine and ready for that October run starting in September.
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