The St. Louis Cardinals will have to do without the services of star first baseman Albert Pujols until the end of July or the start of August as he’s on the shelf with a broken wrist. Pujols suffered the injury on June 19th in a game against Kansas and doctors have estimated that he’ll be out of action for about six weeks.
St. Louis was hoping Pujols had suffered just a sprained wrist after X-rays didn’t pick up any bone damage, but a CT scan the next day revealed a small fracture. The injury is officially listed as a non-displaced fracture in the player’s left radius. The left radius is one of two major bones in the forearm, but basically the bone is broken in the wrist, which is one of the worst spots for a baseball player.
John Mozeliak, the Cardinals general manager, told the press that the fracture is considered to be mild, but Pujols is still going to miss about six weeks of action and the club hopes to have him back by the time August rolls around.
Pujols broke the bone when he collided with the Royals’ Wilson Betemit during a play at first base in the sixth inning. Pete Kozma, the Cardinals’ second baseman, hurried a throw to first base which sailed towards the infield grass and Betemit ran into Pujols as he reached for the ball.
After the game Pujols said it was just a weird play that sometimes occurs during the course of a ball game and there was no way to avoid it. He added that it happens to a lot of first basemen. He also said he felt some pain throughout his left shoulder after the collision, but the club said medical scans didn’t find any damage in that area.
Mozeliak and team manager Tony La Russa both said they didn’t think Pujols will suffer any long-term effects from injury after it heals, but things might have been different if he had broken a smaller bone in the wrist. They added that the club’s medical staff tested Pujols after the break and said his grip was still pretty strong, which is an indication that it should heal fine.
The injury also means Pujols will miss the All-Star Game. That will disappoint fans as he was the leading vote-getter for first basemen in the National League at the time of the injury. He’s having a decent season at the plate after a slow start with a .279 batting average, a .500 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage of .355. He also had 17 home runs along with 45 RBIs.
Pujols has been placed on the club’s disabled list twice before. The first time was back in June of 2006 when he had a strain in his left oblique and again in June of 2008 when he had a strain in his left calf muscle. St. Louis has been hit hard by injuries so far this season as Pujols joined seven of his teammates who were already on the DL on June 20th.
The team has had to place 12 players on the DL so far this year, with three of them resulting from broken bones in their arms. Adam Wainwright’s injury was considered the worst though, as he had to undergo right elbow surgery and is out for the season.
The Cardinals have called up 26-year-old Mark Hamilton from St. Louis’ Memphis Triple A team to replace Pujols.
