Marcell Ozuna’s tests come back negative as Braves avoid the worst

DETROIT — Marcell Ozuna and the Braves are breathing a sigh of relief.

They appear to have avoided disaster with Ozuna, who was hit in the wrist by a pitch Monday.

The X-rays came back negative. So did the tests Ozuna underwent at a local hospital.

“My mind was relaxed,” Ozuna said Tuesday. “I felt a little better (after they came back negative).”

It could’ve been much, much worse.

His hand is swollen, but officially, it is a right wrist contusion. He is day-to-day.

“I couldn’t grip and all of that stuff,” Ozuna said. “It made me nervous because the first thing I thought is that it was broken.”

And a bit after Ozuna delivered good news, Braves manager Brian Snitker revealed the better news: Ozuna on Tuesday hit off a high-velocity machine. Though he was out of the lineup Tuesday, he was going to be available to pinch-hit. Snitker could look to put Ozuna in the lineup as soon as Wednesday. Ozuna will receive treatment in the meantime.

“When you get hit in the hand, as we’ve seen, usually something gives,” Snitker said. “Evidently, it got hit just right. I didn’t even expect him to be able to hold a bat today, even though all the tests were negative.”

Instead, Ozuna went into Snitker’s office and showed the manager video of him hitting off the machine. This was a pleasant surprise for Snitker.

“A lot better than I thought it’d be,” Snitker said. “I thought it’d be three or four days, actually, before he was able to swing a bat.”

In the fourth inning Monday, Detroit’s Garrett Hill plunked Ozuna on the wrist with a 94 mph sinker. At the time, the pain and discomfort were so severe that assistant athletic trainer Jeff Stevenson had to take the protective batting pad off Ozuna’s left arm for Ozuna, whose right hand didn’t have enough strength.

The ball struck Ozuna on the side of the hand – the part padded with muscle.

”It just got muscle, not bone,” Ozuna said.

The ball probably hit his hand in the perfect spot.

“I guess, if you’re gonna get hit there,” Snitker said. “Maybe he got hit in the little pad more than the bone because we just know, usually, those things end up in some kind of hairline fracture or whatever, most of the time.”

ExploreOzuna leaves game vs. Tigers after being hit by pitch

Of course, Ozuna was scared. Earlier this season, teammate Orlando Arcia suffered a microfracture in his wrist when a pitch struck him; then he missed three weeks. Last week, Braves pitcher Charlie Morton inadvertently plunked the Mets’ Pete Alonso, which sent him to the injured list for three or four weeks.

Ozuna worried this could be him.

Fortunately, it will not be.

“It was (hit) in the right spot,” Ozuna said.

In Tuesday’s lineup, Snitker put Eddie Rosario in the designated hitter spot. With Rosario out of left field, Snitker opted for Kevin Pillar – who is better in the field – to start in left. Rosario was batting fifth, Pillar eighth.

Ozuna has a 10-game hitting streak. Since the start of May, he’s been one of the Braves’ better hitters.

Well, actually, he probably has been the team’s best hitter over that span.

Since the beginning of May, Ozuna leads the Braves in batting average (.325), OPS (1.041), home runs (11) and RBIs (27).

There never is a good time for injuries.

This is a particularly poor time for Ozuna, who had broken out and looked like his former self since the start of last month.

Luckily for Ozuna and the Braves, it seems he lucked out and will be able to try to continue his hot streak without much interruption.

“We’ll see what happens over the next couple days,” Ozuna said.