Tex Out! #Yankees Falling Fast
Warm Up the Singing Fat Lady:
Tex's Season Ending Injury has Yanks' Season Slipping Away
By Howard Goldin
BRONX, NEW YORK (SPORTS)- On August 17 in Minnesota, Mark Teixeira fouled a ball off his right leg.
That night, x-rays were negative and it was determined Tex had a bruised right lower leg. He was out the next seven days, but started at first base on August 25 and pinch hit on August 26. On September 4, he was placed on the 15 day disabled list, retroactive to August 27, with a right shin bruise.
Teixeira met with the press at Yankee Stadium on September11. Earlier that day an MRI proved that the injury was a fracture and would miss the remainder of the 2015 season.
Teixeira spoke about his immediate reaction when the injury took place, “I felt when I got hit it was really as painful as I’ve felt on the field. It’s been really painful since day one.”
Up until the fracture was found, Teixeira had made an attempt to play, “I have a high tolerance of pain. I was trying to play every day. We were trying to figure out why it wasn’t healing. Today we did find out it was fractured.”
The 35-year-old, first baseman, performed excellently on-the-field this season in the 111 games he played. He belted 31 homers and knocked in 79 runs. He had achieved a team-high on Base percentage (obp) of .357 and a slugging percentage of .548.
Teixeira is being replaced at first by Greg Bird. The rookie is currently batting .241, but has hit five home runs and driven in 17 runs in 24 games. Teixeira praised the youngster, “It’s been great seeing Birdie step up.”
Teixeira described his feelings of missing this year’s post-season and not being with his teammates, “I really can’t put into words how disappointed I am. I really think this team [Yankees] has a chance to win the World Series.”
The absence of Teixeira in the lineup may lessen those chances greatly, especially with how well he played this season. The Yanks were in first place on the day he got injured in August, but were 2 ½ games behind the Blue Jays on the day of his press conference.
#Yankees #Teixeira #Playoffs
