Finley’s Injury Not Too Serious

Precautionary X-rays on Chuck Finley’s left elbow Sunday were normal, and an examination of the Angel left-hander by Dr. Craig Milhouse revealed nothing more than a bruised elbow Finley sustained when he was hit by a Chad Kreuter liner Saturday night.

And for that, the Angels were very thankful.

“Absolutely, he was very lucky,” Milhouse said. “If that had hit him in the wrong spot you’d be worried about him cracking a bone. It hit him in the meat of the arm, the muscle. But it was very close to the bone.”

Milhouse said the lump on Finley’s elbow was “about the size of a baseball” Saturday night, but the swelling went down considerably Sunday. Finley said he felt confident he would be able to pitch again by the end of this week.

“It’s a little stiff and my range of motion is limited, but I feel all right,” said Finley, who is 4-0 and has a 14-game winning streak dating back to last July.

The moment Kreuter’s fourth-inning liner drilled him, Finley had flashbacks of 1997, when he broke a bone in his left wrist on Aug. 19 and sat out the rest of the season. The Angels were tied for first place in the American League West that night but faded in September without their best pitcher.

“That was the first thing that came to mind, that I didn’t want something like that to happen again,” Finley said. “We were all kind of in shock. It was frustrating more than anything else because of the uncertainty.”

Finley said he will try to throw either today or Tuesday. His next scheduled turn would be Thursday’s off day, so Finley will have an extra day of rest.

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Closer Troy Percival rebounded from the elbow problems that flared up on the last road trip. The right-hander hit 96 mph on the radar gun Saturday night, when he struck out two of four against the White Sox to record his eighth save.

“He had no discomfort,” Collins said. “That one day in Tampa Bay [April 26] when he was throwing so nice, so free and easy. . . . [Saturday] night was the same way.

“It’s easy to sit here and say that’s all he has to do. It’s not so easy when you have to face guys like Frank Thomas and Harold Baines in the ninth inning. But he’s healthy, and that’s the key.”

TONIGHT

ANGELS’ ALLEN WATSON (1-3, 7.57 ERA) vs. WHITE SOX’S JAMIE NAVARRO (2-3, 5.25 ERA)

Edison Field, 7 p.m.

Radio--KRLA (1110), XPRS (1090).

Update--Watson was hit hard in his first three games before defeating Tampa Bay with a complete game on April 24 and losing his last start in Boston on Wednesday night. The left-hander, who led the major leagues with 37 homers given up in 1997, has done a slightly better job keeping the ball in the park, giving up five homers in five games, but opponents are hitting .351 against him.

Tickets--(714) 634-2000.