A bizarre sequence occurred in Tuesday night's Diamondbacks victory over the San Diego Padres. Chris Young had finally returned to the regular lineup after injuring his right quadriceps muscle, but before anyone knew it, he was gone again.
That is because in the first inning, on the first batter, Young was forced to leave the game after re-injuring his previous wound. Everth Cabrera hit a deep fly ball to center field, which Young was able to track down. But in the process, he apparently tweaked his quad again. That made way for Gerardo Parra to enter the game to take his place.
"I was a little bit surprised, more disappointed than anything. It was more frustrating than anything, but I just got to try and get it right," Young said after the game.
D-Backs manager Kirk Gibson discussed the injury and could tell right away that something was up with his veteran outfielder as soon as he made the catch. "You could see it tighten up, I had to get him out of there," Gibson said. "We thought we were beyond that, you try to simulate it. He's run the bases, he hasn't experienced that [running in the outfield]... It cramped up on him, you could tell."
The team may make a move to try and replace Young in the lineup and give the outfield some more depth, according to Gibson. "Reno won tonight, so might retrieve somebody from there as well," Gibson said. With the Reno Aces taking home another championship, a player such as A.J. Pollock might be an option.
According to both Young and Gibson, re-injuring his quadriceps muscle has had just as much of an effect as when he injured it the first time. Last time he injured it, Young was out of the lineup for more than two weeks. But with only 15 games left in the regular season, one has to wonder if Young will see anymore field time this season. He certainly hopes he does.
When asked about possibly not getting another start, Young seemed somewhat concerned. "It's getting late in the year and we tried to push it today and it didn't work out. I just kind of have to see day by day how it feels and try to test it again."
The odd thing is, many have speculated that Young will no longer be a Diamondback once 2013 rolls around. The team may try to move his contract with Adam Eaton already in the Majors and A.J. Pollock nearing another call up as well. Young's future is quite hazy, but for now, he is going to try and do everything he can to help his team win.
"I'll probably go back to the role that I was doing," Young said of his previous pinch hitting designation. "I'll just continue root teammates on and be ready for any kind of situation that comes up my way where I can still get a bat and try to change a game that way."
Sadly enough, that might be the last role Young sees during his days as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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