Foul ball may hurt Angels infielder Tommy La Stella’s All-Star spot
Tommy La Stella’s hopes of playing in his first All-Star game may have been dashed Tuesday night when the Angels infielder fouled a ball off his right shin in the sixth inning of a 9-4 victory over the Texas Rangers and had to be carried off the field.
Batting against hard-throwing right-hander Jose Leclerc, La Stella swung at a 3-and-1 fastball and hit the ball straight into his shin, just below the knee. La Stella crumpled to the ground and was helped off the field, unable to put any weight on his right leg.
He was replaced during the at-bat by Justin Bour, who grounded the first pitch he saw from Leclerc into right field for a two-run single to highlight a four-run rally that gave the Angels a 7-3 lead.
La Stella was diagnosed with a right-shin contusion and will undergo a CT scan and an evaluation on Wednesday. Angels manager Brad Ausmus said he was unsure how serious La Stella’s injury is.
“We’ve got to get more pictures,” he said.
La Stella is having a career year, batting .300 with 16 homers and 44 RBIs, a first-half effort that led to the former utility infielder being voted by players as a reserve for next Tuesday’s All-Star game in Cleveland. La Stella hit 10 homers in 396 games over his first five big-league seasons.
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Short hops
Center fielder Brian Goodwin was hit by a pitch on the outside of his right wrist in the seventh inning Tuesday night. He remained in the game but was removed for a pinch-hitter in the eighth. With reserve catcher Dustin Garneau the only remaining player on the bench, Ausmus moved designated hitter Mike Trout to center field for the last two innings, the Angels playing without a DH. Goodwin will undergo a CT scan on Wednesday … Albert Pujols tied Tony Gwynn for 19th place on baseball’s all-time hit list with a fifth-inning single Tuesday night, giving the Angels slugger 3,141 career hits.
Matt Harvey, sidelined since May 25, because of an upper-back strain, began a second minor league rehabilitation stint with a four-inning, two-run, four-hit start for Class-A Inland Empire against Lancaster on Tuesday night. The right-hander struck out two, walked none and threw 46 pitches, 34 for strikes. … The Angels signed a pair of 16-year-old shortstops on the first day of the international signing period on Tuesday, inking Arol Vera of Venezuela for $2.2 million and Adrian Placencia of the Dominican Republic for $1.1 million. Vera is ranked ninth and Placencia 28th on MLB Pipeline’s international prospect list.
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