New York Mets second baseman Robinson Cano received ample criticism over the weekend for not running out a pair of double-play balls. On Monday, he was seemingly benched for it. Then, on Wednesday Cano did run out a batted ball -- and wound up injuring himself.
In the third inning, Cano came up with two outs and the tying run on second base in a 1-0 game against the Washington Nationals. After hitting a routine grounder to short, Cano busted it down the line … only to pull up lame about three-quarters of the way to first. He was replaced in the subsequent half inning by Adeiny Hechavarria.
So Robinson Cano gets put on blast for not running out ground balls, is benched, told he needs to run out plays, runs out a play today...and leaves with left quad tightness.
— Laura Albanese (@AlbaneseLaura) May 23, 2019
You can't make this stuff up.
Here's a look at Cano's sprint:
Robinson Cano is out of the game after appearing to hurt something on his way to first base: pic.twitter.com/GZ8oaxfFXm
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 23, 2019
On Thursday, the Mets placed Cano on the 10-day injured list with a low-grade left quad strain.
The biggest problem facing Cano this season had been his uncharacteristically poor performance at the plate. He entered Wednesday with an 85 OPS+ that would represent a new career-low. Unfortunately, missing time (or being hampered while remaining active) due to an injury isn't likely to help him get on track.
The Mets have already lost two other starters to injury in the past week: Michael Conforto due to a concussion and Brandon Nimmo because of neck discomfort. Jed Lowrie, who was supposed to start at third base but hasn't appeared in a game yet because of a knee injury, isn't expected back until June.
