The swelling in her broken right little toe is gone and the pain has lessened. Max Kepler took fly balls into the outfield on Wednesday, ran base Thursday and practiced batting both days.
Is it time for Kepler, who hasn’t played since being hit in the foot by a Rony Garcia pitch on July 24 against Detroit, to return to the lineup?
“It’s soon. It’s soon. As we know, this is an injury that is basically playing for yourself [pain] tolerance,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “Could he be back this weekend? It’s possible.”
That didn’t seem the case a week ago, which surprised the Twins’ right fielder. “I’ve never broken anything before, so it was a shock,” Kepler said. “The pain I was dealing with first was not very bearable for me personally. But it’s not going to heal until the end of the season, so I’m going to have to face it and play through it.”
- Kyle Garlick was the last outfielder to appear on the injured list, officially ruled out on Thursday due to rib pain that Baldelli attributed to cartilage irregularities. “He’s got a cartilage fracture – I’ve never heard of that in my entire life,” Baldelli said of the injury Garlick suffered when he hit the fence in San Diego last Friday as he tried to save a Homer. “He tried to play, to see if it was possible, but he was in a lot of pain and couldn’t play.”
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