Willson Contreras was hit by a pitch in the hand during the Boston Red Sox's win over the Texas Rangers on Thursday.
Contreras exited the game after what was his 24th hit-by-pitch of the season. It's not the most fun way to get on base, and it could potentially cost Contreras some time. Unfortunately, time is not something the Red Sox have a ton of right now.
The regular season is coming to an end, and even though Contreras' initial X-rays showed no fracture, any fan who remembers what happened with Curtis Mead knows that they need to hold their breath.
"Sore. Painful. My hand was numb for like five minutes," Contreras said of the injury, per MassLive's Chris Cotillo. "That was the reason I came out of the game. I have fractured, before, the same hand. It felt like a fracture. Thankfully, it’s not a fracture on the top of the bone. I’m just frustrated."
Contreras is no stranger to being hit by a pitch, but he knows where the team is at on the calendar, and that this injury could linger into the postseason.
“It’s really frustrating because I just came back from the IL (because of a hamstring strain), and this might take days. I mean, sore bones in the hands — might take two days, might take a week, might take 10 days," he said after the game, per The Boston Globe's Tim Healey. “I don’t know. We’ll see how I feel after taking this plane to Tampa.”
He said he will probably not play Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays, and he will get additional imaging done.