Joel Zumaya suffers serious arm injury
Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Joel Zumaya suffered a serious injury to his right elbow after pitching against the Minnesota Twins on Monday night.
Coming on in relief of Phil Coke, Zumaya was pitching with one out in the eighth inning when he threw a 99 mph pitch to Twins outfielder Delmon Young that was fouled off. Immediately afterwards, Zumaya turned around to face the outfield clutching his right elbow, falling to the floor writhing around in pain.
While he was being examined by the Tigers trainer, Zumaya’s thumb was clearly shaking and Tigers catcher Gerald Laird immediately knew something was wrong after hearing a sound that was “just like a little pop.”
Zumaya is scheduled to have an MRI on his elbow on Tuesday morning. The 25-year-old who has had a history of injuries since his rookie year in 2006, refused to comment through a team spokesman. Tigers manager Jim Leyland was disappointed for Zumaya.
"That's an awesome bad feeling to see something like that,” Leyland said.
“Every pitcher that ever pitched is one pitch away from throwing his last one and certainly I don't want to paint a bad picture here because I'm not saying that's the case here at all. But that's just the way it is,” the manager added.
After making only 29 appearances last year due to a shoulder injury, Zumaya made over 30 appearances this year for the first time since 2006 posting a 2.58 ERA in 38 1/3 innings.
Zumaya looked like he could barely walk as he left the field with the trainer and will await the results of his MRI to find out just how long he will face on the disabled list.
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