Youkilis eyes October return
Kevin Youkilis is certainly not giving up on the Red Sox playing baseball in October nor is he giving up on playing in October either. Youkilis is eying a return in time for the postseason as he is currently on the disabled list with a torn muscle in the palm of his right hand. The muscle connects to the thumb and the rare injury was expected to keep Youkilis out for at least the regular season. That doesn’t mean Youkilis is giving up on playing in 2010.
Youkilis admitted that his potential return in time for the playoffs is his own prognosis and not that of his doctors: "That's me. I hope I come back and play. A lot has to happen. We've got to win to get in the playoffs. I'm hoping to do that. I may not be able to play at all, but I'll try to give myself the best chance."
The first-baseman still isn’t sure quite how the injury happened. He had been experiencing some pain late in July when the club was on the West Coast.
"I forget what day," he said. "It just felt like a bruise. Hitting-wise, you get jammed a lot, you do all that stuff. You see guys shake their hand because it hurts a little bit. It was like that. It didn't go away. Sometimes you get it for a day or two, and a lot of times it goes away."
On August 2nd, Youkilis felt immediate pain after a lineout to third base in a game against the Cleveland Indians. He stayed in the game for another inning but soon left. He has been on the disabled list since then and was ruled out of playing for the remainder of the season. Youkilis had surgery performed on his hand four days later in Cleveland. He said the doctors were unable to pinpoint when exactly he tore the muscle.
It just happened," he said. "No rhyme or reason to it, other than it's baseball. It might have been torn before the at-bat," he said. "They don't know when it happened. It basically tore off the bone."
Youkilis has been told the Boston Red Sox don’t even have a chance of making the playoffs this year, trying to catch the Yankees and Rays with so many injuries. Youkilis disagrees, as he’s confident in the team and the fact that they’ve stayed in contention in an injury-plagued season speaks volumes about the team’s mental toughness.
"That's one thing," he said. "People are coming up to me and saying, 'You don't have a chance anymore.' I say, 'Wrong.' These guys have a great chance because we have great players here, who want to win and have fun."
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