Braves right fielder Jason Heyward had to leave Thursday night’s game after he strained his right hamstring running the bases, but he said afterward he thinks he avoided a serious injury.
“I felt something sore first, got a little tight, no pops, no pulls, tears, nothing of that (nature),” Heyward said. “It just got painful.”
Heyward will be re-evaluated Friday but thinks he should be able to avoid a DL stint.
“We’ll evaluate again tomorrow of course, but right now I don’t think it’ll be DL,” Heyward said. “I think the fact that nothing is torn, nothing was pulled, I think I’ll be OK to just have some rest and get it worked out.”
Heyward was advancing from first to third on an infield hit by Justin Upton in the second inning and said he felt it a couple of steps before he slid into third base. He lay on the ground in pain for a few minutes but was able to get up and walk off the field on his own.
“I was looking at the play, and as soon as I got my head turned back around, a step and a half it was sore,” Heyward said. “That’s when it happened right before I slid. So I didn’t do anything running or nothing weird. I didn’t land wrong or anything like that. It just happened.”
Heyward was replaced by Reed Johnson who stayed in the game in right field.
The Braves are thin in the outfield already with Jordan Schafer on the disabled list with a badly bruised right ankle. He isn’t eligible to come off until after the All-Star break. Rookie Joey Terdoslavich hasn’t played in the outfield since he was called up from Triple-A Gwinnett a week ago.
“Hopefully it doesn’t manifest itself into something worse than it is right now,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of Heyward’s injury. “Those things you just never know how they’re going to get overnight, so we’ll evaluate him in the afternoon when he comes in.”
