Braves reliever Scott Downs doesn’t think his fractured right ring finger will keep him off the mound long, and Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez wasn’t ruling out a possible return on Sunday afternoon.
“I think Downsy may be fine,” Gonzalez said. “What are the chances of him using his glove on (another) comebacker? If he has a splint, it’s not going to make it any worse and it’s in your glove.”
Gonzalez planned to rest his other left-handed reliever Luis Avilan Sunday after Avilan pitched two days in a row to open the series. Downs is his only other left-hander in the bullpen.
Downs wasn’t quite sure where and how Chase Utley’s comebacker got him in the tip of his ring finger on his glove hand in the sixth inning Saturday night, but when he took his hand out of his glove, his finger was bleeding.
“I even went back and looked at film to try and figure out if it hit the back of my glove, the tip, I have no clue,” Downs said. “I just know that when it hit my glove, it got really warm, almost like it exploded (swelled up) or whatever.”
Downs was wearing a splint on his finger in the Braves clubhouse Sunday morning but said he still had decent flexibility bending it.
“It’s just going to be a matter of being able to put it into my glove and be able to catch and protect myself,” Downs said. “It’s not going to affect the way I throw. Hopefully once the swelling goes down, tape it up, and see how it goes. I don’t plan on missing a lot of time…
“I wish I knew if it would be today, tomorrow or whatnot, but will have to see just how the treatment goes and go from there.”
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