While many Braves fans worried about Jason Heyward’s sore right shoulder, manager Fredi Gonzalez didn’t sound overly concerned Wednesday and hoped to have him back for this weekend’s series against Philadelphia.
Heyward was replaced in the eighth inning of Tuesday’s loss against Washington after complaining of numbness in his right hand, pain he believed had radiated from a sore shoulder that he said has bothered him since spring training.
He was out of the lineup Wednesday and had an MRI exam scheduled for Thursday.
“I don’t know what numbness means, necessarily, but they wouldn’t let me leave here last night until they knew I was OK,” said Heyward, who is 2-for-28 with 13 strikeouts in May. “It was something new. There was numbness, so I just had to let them know.”
Tuesday was the first time he or Braves officials said anything about the right shoulder being an issue. Gonzalez said he knew Heyward was playing with some shoulder discomfort, but it hadn’t been enough to keep him out of the lineup.
“Yesterday, one of the swings probably tweaked it a little bit more,” Gonzalez said. “Now it flared up. Now we’ll let it settle down a little bit, and we’ll move forward.”
After Tuesday’s game, Gonzalez said he thought the shoulder had bothered Heyward for “seven, 10 days.” Heyward said it was sore since spring training.
“In spring it was no time to push it, so I did come out of the lineup one time for it then,” Heyward said. “I took a dose pack [anti-inflammatories] in spring training and it made it feel better, but it didn’t go away completely. Then I started the season with it and it wasn’t the most comfortable, but it was definitely doable.
“I had a stretch where I was on an eight-game hitting streak, and it felt pretty good, felt like I could produce with it.”
From April 22-30, Heyward hit .400 (14-for-35) with three homers, seven RBIs and a 1.161 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS). Since then, he has hit a league-worst .071 in May with one extra-base hit (a double).
“Even though I was feeling pretty good, I probably wasn’t doing myself any good by wearing it down, and I’m learning that now,” Heyward said. “Now’s the time to definitely get it fixed and not push it.”
Heyward was referring to a possible cortisone injection and rest, not surgery. Tests on the shoulder have shown the strength is good, and there are no indications of structural damage.
Moylan surgery scheduled
Peter Moylan is scheduled to undergo surgery to repair a herniated disc Tuesday, after Los Angeles spine specialist Dr. Robert Watkins confirmed what Atlanta surgeons had projected for Moylan.
Moylan said the surgery will require around 12 weeks’ recovery, which means he could return to action in late August or September. Dr. Watkins, who has operated on Randy Johnson, Troy Aikman and a host of high profile athletes, will perform the surgery.
Moylan underwent similar surgeries in 2001 and 2003 when he was out of professional baseball. He said Watkins told him his history of previous surgeries did not affect the length of his recovery time in this case, even though he has previously had surgery for a bulging L5-S1 disc.
“When they looked at the MRI they said it looked like a back that hadn’t been operated on,” Moylan said. “And that’s what was encouraging for me.”
McDowell nears return
Braves pitching Roger McDowell’s two-week suspension for inappropriate behavior towards fans ends Friday, when he’ll rejoin the team just in time for the Civil Rights weekend games against the Phillies.
McDowell was suspended by Major League Baseball for allegedly using anti-gay slurs and making sexually suggestive comments before an April 23 game at San Francisco. He also was fined an undisclosed amount and required to attend sensitivity training.
“Roger has started the MLB-mandated sensitivity training ... in an effort to help him understand what happened in San Francisco and to help him going forward,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said. “He also has reached out to the [Quinn] family and apologized to them directly. He’s looking forward to coming back and joining the team.”
Giants fan Justin Quinn, 33, who was at the game with his twin 9-year-old daughters, issued the complaint against McDowell.
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