There have been a whole lot of unusual sports injuries over the years, perhaps especially in baseball. The latest one to Zach Plesac of the Cleveland Guardians adds to that list.
Cleveland announced Friday that Plesac was placed on the 15-day injured list with a fractured right pinky finger. Manager Terry Francona told reporters they believe that injury happened as a result of him punching the ground after giving up a home run in his last start Monday against the Seattle Mariners. (Plesac is seen above earlier in that game.)
Here’s that home run and ground punch:
That seventh-inning home run by Lamb off Plesac didn’t wind up costing his team the game, as the Guardians scored three runs in the eighth and held on for a 4-3 win. But it did spell the end of Plesac’s night. And it’s now led to him hitting the 15-day injury list, and to changes in the Cleveland rotation (Plesac had been set to start against the Mariners Friday night):
This is just the most recent odd injury for Plesac. Last May, he suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right thumb after “rather aggressively ripping off his shirt,” in Francona’s words. That fracture also came after a disappointing outing, where Plesac gave up five runs in three and two-thirds innings. He also made headlines in 2020 when he wound up in quarantine for three days after breaching MLB COVID-19 protocols, and called the media reports on that “evil.”
Plesac, 27, is in his fourth season at the MLB level, all with Cleveland. He has a 3-11 record this year, but has posted a 4.39 ERA, an improvement over last year’s 4.67. The home run he allowed to Lamb was the 19th he had given up this year. And his response to it now appears to have sent him to the IL.
[Mandy Bell on Twitter; photo from Steven Bisig/USA Today Sports]