The Astros placed ace Justin Verlander on the injured list Tuesday but expressed optimism the calf injury he suffered Sunday is a short-term problem.
In what he described as a dodged bullet and “as good of news as I could have gotten,” Verlander said he sustained damage in the fascia of his right calf but avoided any damage to the muscle itself. Fascia is connective tissue that holds the muscle in place.
“This could have been really bad. I’m not saying we’re out of the woods or anything is perfect. There’s still an injury there I have to heal.” Asked when he could resume baseball activities, Verlander replied: “It’s just basically whenever my calf is strong enough that I feel I can do that. Whether that’s in a couple days or more than that, I don’t really know.”Verlander suffered the injury during the third inning of Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles. The 39-year-old ace said he got “caught off guard” by a Baltimore baserunning blunder after a deep fly ball to center field.
“As soon as I drop-stepped to go run, I felt a pop right in the middle of my calf,” Verlander said. “I initially was like, ‘OK, well, definitely something is wrong. Let me just walk off the field and reassess.’ Kind of as I was walking off the field, it sort of tightened up more and more. … It was pretty immediate. I knew right away I shouldn’t stay in the game.”