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You Can't Blame Guitar Hero This Time Around...

By FLATigersFan

AP Photo/Ed Zurga
For those who watched tonight's 7-5 victory over the Royals, then you more than likely know about the injury to Zumaya's throwing hand that happened while he was warming up in the bullpen.

Tom Gage of the Detroit News has the latest:

It's to the top knuckle of the middle finger on his right hand - he's at the hospital having it looked at as I write this - he told manager Jim Leyland he heard something pop in his finger while he was throwing a pitch in the bullpen - Leyland said his initial thoughts are he'll be needing to call up another pitcher

Ouch. Tough break. Perhaps this was a nagging issue that was causing some of Zoom's velocity and control problems of the last few weeks?

Meanwhile, the Tigers stayed hot and kept their win streak alive despite the negativity looming from this injury. The bats overcame three Royals' homeruns and eight walks by Tigers pitching to pick up the win -- their sixth straight victory, moving them to 18-11 on the season.

We should be seeing a more in-depth recap of tonight's game by Tomorrow morning at some point. And if there happens to be anything new with Zoom's injury, we'll get it up ASAP.

UPDATE - 11:35 pm: So now Danny Knobler of MLive has a few words on the condition of Joel Zumaya on his blog:

The Tigers say they still have no official word on Joel Zumaya's injury, but it doesn't look good at all. Zumaya is headed for the disabled list, and his stay there will likely be measured in months rather than weeks.

Zumaya was warming up in the bullpen in the eighth inning tonight. Bullpen coach Jeff Jones said he shook his middle finger after throwing a breaking ball, but that he said he was fine. Then Zumaya threw a fastball.

``He looked at me and said, `I think I dislocated my finger,' '' Jones said. ``I've never seen that before. I've seen just about everything, but I've never seen that.''

Zumaya left the clubhouse tonight without talking about the injury. It's expected that he will be sent for an MRI exam when the Tigers get home Sunday night.

Needless to say, this is NOT looking good.

UPDATE - 12:15 am: Joel has already been placed on the DL with what Gage reported was a "right middle finger strain," and the Tigers have called up right-handed reliever Aquilino Lopez in his place.

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