SAN DIEGO – Tyler Flowers was out of the Braves lineup for Thursday’s series finale against the Padres after sustaining a nasty-looking contusion to his left forearm when hit by a pitch in Wednesday’s game.
However, most of the swelling was gone, and the catcher was available to play if needed, Braves manager Brian Snitker said. Flowers could be back in the lineup as soon as Friday’s series opener against the Athletics in Oakland.
The Braves catcher was struck in his lower left forearm by a pitch with bases loaded in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s 7-4 loss, the 12th time he’s been hit by a pitch in 200 plate appearances this season. The only major leaguers who’d be hit by more pitches this season were Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison, who was hit 16 times in 324 plate appearances before Thursday, and Miami’s Derek Dietrich, hit 13 times in 346 PAs.
Within seconds of being hit, Flowers had a large welt on his forearm, one so big that his immediate concern was whether the arm was broken.
“The look kind of freaked me out, too,” he said after Wednesday’s game. “You hear stories about breaking your arm and it just being numb or something. But I was able to move it around OK. I think it looked a lot worse than it is. Not that it feels good, but it looked pretty grotesque.”
A day later, Flowers’ strength and flexibility tested normal.
“He’s OK, he could play today if he had to,” Snitker said. “It looked a lot better. They’ve got all those compression (wrap) things. It didn’t look good coming off (the field Wednesday), but he swung the bat, tested good today, if he has to play tonight he could.”
