Pitching in the eighth inning, Joel Zumaya collapsed to the ground following a pitch to Delmon Young. You'll see the video I'm sure. It's not an easy one to watch.
Shoulder? Elbow? Speculation in the gamethread and on Twitter was immediate, but there was no real indication from Zumaya or anyone else where the pain might be originating from. (See updates: The latest news report from MLB.com's Jason Beck says that it was his elbow and an MRI will be done to find the severity.) It was obvious something was bothering him, as his hand shook and he fought a losing battle against tears. Eventually Zumaya was able to walk off the mound with some assistance while he cradled his arm to his chest.
With Zumaya it was always a battle of his body against time. Nearly yearly since his sophomore season he has had a setback of some sort take away a large part of his season. Each time his immediate reaction is to believe it's career ending. So far, that hasn't been the case. While this season may again be taken away from Zumaya, let's just hope his worst fears do not come true.
Updates:
- Gerald Laird reported on the post game he heard a pop when Zumaya threw the pitch.
- Fellow SB Nation site Lookout Landing has two gifs. I'm just going to link them because they're pretty hard to watch. Animation 1, Animation 2.
- Jim Leyland said in the post game that Zumaya would have an MRI in the morning but "it didn't look good."
- Per Jason Beck on twitter: "Elbow injury for Zumaya. Will have MRI tomorrow. He's up and walking around clubhouse, arm in sling. He said he'll talk tomorrow." More at Beck's Blog.
- MLive has a story too.
Tuesday updates:
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MLB.com has the video. There's nothing grotesque about it but it's still real hard to watch.