Rangers Josh Hamilton ‘Confident’ Back Injury Will Not Force Him to Miss any Upcoming Games

Posted on September 2nd, 2009 11:51pm by Evan Grant
Filed under Baseball, Injury report, Texas Rangers

ARLINGTON – For the second straight day, a key member of the Rangers lineup left the field early due to injury. OF Josh Hamilton, however, said he does not expect to miss any more upcoming games over back stiffness that has bothered him since a weekend of playing on artificial turf in Minnesota.

Hamilton left Wednesday’s game after doubling in the fourth inning. He slid headfirst into second on the double and then took a minute to kneel before getting up slowly. He remained in the game and scored the Rangers second run of a 6-4 win over Toronto. He did not return for the fifth inning and was replaced by Marlon Byrd in center field.

Afterward Hamilton said he didn’t do anything specific during the weekend on Minnesota’s artificial turf, but that the back started to stiffen up by the end of the weekend. The three games in Minnesota made six games on turf for the Rangers in a 10-day span. Hamilton said he will get treatment on the back Thursday before the Rangers leave for Baltimore to begin a six-game road trip. He said he is “confident” that he won’t need to miss any additional time. He’s already spent two stints on the DL this season for a sore oblique muscle and later for sports hernia surgery.

“We all need to go out there when we are less than 100 percent,” Hamilton said after the game. “You work through it.”

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5 Comments to “Rangers Josh Hamilton ‘Confident’ Back Injury Will Not Force Him to Miss any Upcoming Games”
  • Tom B @ September 3rd, 2009 at 3:42 am

    Sad to say but it seems to have occured just about the time he got some POP in his bat. Everyone has dings and bangs this time of year. It just goes with the territory but when your back isn’t right, nothing works very well.

  • dude Back In Afghanistan @ September 3rd, 2009 at 5:38 am

    Josh should be fine. He’s had a couple of breaks, so he’s probably pretty rested for the stretch. MY will hopefully stay hot through his break and come out strong and ripping the ball just like he has been.

    I’m kinda pumped to look at the schedules for the Rangers and Angels. There is a stretch from the 14th to the 20th where LAA has 7 road games with NYY (1), Boston (3), and Texas (3). All 3 of those teams have displayed excellent home field advantages. I would say the Rangers could make a big run there.

    Sure the Angels have been pretty good on the road, but that stretch could easily turn out to be 2 and 5 for them. With that said, it is not too far of a reach to see where the Angels will only be able to come up with a total of 91 wins for the yr. They have 4 games against the Yankees, 3 @ Boston, and 6 with the Rangers.

    Looking at the Rangers schedule, they are definitely catching a lot of breaks. BAL, CLE, and OAK have some of the worst home records in the AL. TB and OAK are among the worst road teams. Rangers fans can probably hope for a record of no worse than 10-6 in those games — still, that might be a win or 2 short of where we need to be.

    To reach 91 wins, the Rangers only need to go 16-13 the rest of the way, and their schedule is much easier than LA’s. That doesn’t sound too difficult, but they DO have 17 of their 29 games left on the road — where they are currently 2 games under .500, so they need to get going right away. If, though, the Rangers do get pretty hot, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the final 3-game series in LA begin with the Rangers in the lead!

    Again, this 6-game road trip could be disastrous if the Good Guys don’t win both series against the Orioles and Indians. Go 3-3 or 2-4, they will definitely have to hope the Angels get a little cold also.

    Five wins on this trip could, however, be a springboard toward taking over the division lead come the end of the Angels’ rough road trip mentioned above. By the evening of Sep 20th, I think we’ll actually know whether we can make tentative plans for the post-season, or begin watching some football. Let’s go Rangers!

  • Ron Dodson @ September 3rd, 2009 at 8:03 am

    Dude back in Afghanistan,
    Nice comment, and thanks for serving.
    Blessings to you.

  • Dr Pepper presents Batface McGee @ September 3rd, 2009 at 9:05 am

    The dude is fragile.

  • CALDER @ September 12th, 2009 at 11:08 am

    Super ! Great site !!