Tigers’ Nick Castellanos suffers non-displaced left hand fracture from hit by pitch

DETROIT — Nick Castellanos will be gone for a while. In the fourth inning he was hit by a pitch in his left wrist/hand area and left the game before the top of the fifth inning. Soon after, the Tigers announced a fracture in his hand and after the game said he would be out at least four weeks.

The non-displaced fracture was to the fifth metacarpal in his left hand. His hit by pitch at the time loaded the bases and he later scored, but at the top of the fifth, he was out of the game and Mike Aviles had taken over.

Not long after, John Wagner of the Toledo Blade reported that Casey McGehee had been taken out of the Toledo game at Indianapolis. He’ll likely be Castellanos’ replacement while he’s on the disabled list.

A fracture like this can take anywhere from two to eight weeks to recover from, and because it occurred on the hand he needs more power with to hit, the recovery time could be prolonged. With Castellanos out at least a month, he won’t be back until after the first week in September, landing the Tigers with a blow to their offense.

Castellanos had drawn a walk to that point in the game, and he scored the third of five runs in the fourth inning. The Mets took back two runs in the top of the fifth, but the Tigers maintained their 6-3 lead.

Castellanos had hit .286/328/.500 with 18 home runs entering Saturday's game. He'd been a bit cool for the last 14 games, though, batting just .208/.263/.302 with one homer since July 20.

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Also, Alex Wilson got hit in the right side of his right leg just below the knee with a comebacker from Michael Conforto. He immediately favored his leg trying to step down, bringing Tigers manager Brad Ausmus and head athletic trainer Kevin Rand rushing out of the dugout.

However, Wilson stayed in the game after a few warmup pitches, and gave Detroit a scoreless frame. Still, it’s been a not so great night for the Tigers and they’ve lost a solid bat for the time being.