The life of a catcher is never easy when someone is barreling toward you down the third base line looking to score, and though the Minnesota Twins won the game on Sunday over the Milwaukee Brewers, Joe Mauer sustained a bit of an injury in just that situation.
Rickie Weeks was trying to score from third base during the 5-4 extra innings win by the Twins, and Weeks ended up hitting Mauer in the thigh with his knee. Mauer returned to the game, but had lost much of his speed when trying to run the bases on a later hit. He was eventually pulled for a pinch runner.
"It didn't feel very good; it actually got worse as the game wore on but, you know, I told Gardy, 'I'll give you everything I got,' " Mauer said.
"I hit a ball down the first-base line that probably should have been a double but I was going as fast as I could go. Gardy talked to me about it and said, 'If you get on again, I'm probably going to have to take you out.' That's what the situation called for."
Fortunately, according to Twincities.com, Mauer is unlikely to miss much time, if any. It helps that the team has Monday off, which should give him an extra day to get his quad back in shape before the opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday.
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