TORONTO — Edwin Encarnacion says the strain in the middle finger on his left hand is slowly improving and that he hopes to be able to return to the Toronto Blue Jays lineup as soon as Thursday.
The injury has held Encarnacion out of action for three consecutive games, but the first baseman was feeling good enough to hit off a tee Wednesday and was hoping to take full batting practice on Thursday. Blue Jays trainers spent the last couple days throwing everything they could at Encarnacion’s finger, from ultrasounds to laser therapy.
"I feel a lot better today. A lot better than the last two days," Encarnacion said. "We’re trying to do everything we can to get it better."
The injury first occurred in late July and held Encarnacion out of the lineup for two games. He returned at the beginning of August and felt fine until the Blue Jays series against Minnesota last week when it began to flare up again.
Encarnacion played through the discomfort for a spell, but during the Blue Jays series in New York this past weekend the pain became too much to bear. During his final at-bat on Saturday, which resulted in a single to left-centre field, Encarnacion could only keep one hand on his bat as he followed through.
The injury comes at an especially inopportune time as Encarnacion is riding an 11-game hit streak and is batting .308/.418/.527 over his last 25 games.
"That’s why I’m a little frustrated — the way I’ve been swinging the last couple weeks. I’ve been swinging good, my timing was getting better," Encarnacion said. "But now we’ve got to deal with my finger and continue to try to do the best we can."
One option for the Blue Jays would be to give Encarnacion a 15-day stint on the disabled list, backdated to Aug. 9, in order to allow the injury to more thoroughly heal. In that scenario, Encarnacion would only miss nine more games, due to an abundance of August off-days for the club. But Blue Jays manager John Gibbons immediately shot down the suggestion of placing Encarnacion on the DL.
"No, it’s not that bad," Gibbons said. "His finger swelled up pretty good, so it’s pretty sensitive. But hopefully in another day we can get rid of it because we’ve got those two games in Philly where he’s going to have to play the field."
The Blue Jays head to Philadelphia next Tuesday and Wednesday for interleague play, and are already carrying a short bench with eight pitchers currently in the bullpen. With Encarnacion unable to play, Gibbons’ only options off the bench Wednesday night were backup catcher Dioner Navarro and utility-man Cliff Pennington.
Gibbons also confirmed Drew Hutchison will take his scheduled turn in the rotation this Sunday against the New York Yankees.
There was some debate as to whether Hutchison would make the start, considering his scattered results in recent outings and the flipping of R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle in the rotation, a move that would have allowed Dickey to pitch Sunday on short rest against the New York Yankees, a team that has struggled of late against knuckleball pitchers.
But after Hutchison held the Oakland Athletics to a pair of runs over seven innings Tuesday night, the Blue Jays will proceed with their rotation as constituted — for now.
After Sunday the Blue Jays won’t need a fifth starter until the end of the month, with three off-days in store for the team over an eight-day span beginning next week. Gibbons may choose to continue rolling his top four arms — Dickey, Buehrle, David Price and Marco Estrada — through that span.
"We’re looking at some things. We’re not ready to announce anything," Gibbons said. "But with those off-days, there might be some adjusting."
The priorities for Gibbons are maximizing the number of starts for Price and ensuring Buehrle — who the manager described as "banged up" — has enough rest.
Gibbons spoke to both pitchers on Wednesday about what the team’s plans might be, although he wouldn’t elaborate on those discussions with the media. All that’s publicly known so far is Buehrle and Price will start Thursday and Friday, respectively, both on an extra day of rest. Estrada goes Saturday, with Hutchison to follow on Sunday.
Gibbons will have a decision to make next week with Price, who could either start the second game of the team’s series against the last-place Phillies on Wednesday or the first game of the team’s series against the Angels — a team the Blue Jays are competing with for the wild card — on Friday.
Starting the game against Los Angeles would be more advantageous for the Blue Jays’ playoff chances, but would also mean nearly a week between starts for Price. Gibbons is also keeping an eye towards September, when the team could be in the heat of a pennant race.
"With those off-days, it really screws things up. It does. So we’re just trying to figure out the best way to go," Gibbons said. "You go into that final weekend [of the season], and hopefully we’re right there. You never know if it goes down to the wire. So you try to maximize Price. That’s why we got him. So mostly it’s going to revolve around him."
