The x-rays were negative, and now we have an official diagnosis on Marco Scutaro’s hip per the MRI:
Marco Scutaro traveled to St. Louis w/ #SFGiants late morning. Has left hip muscle strain. Status unclear for NLCS Game 3 Wed vs #Cardinals
— Janie McCauley (@JanieMcCAP) October 16, 2012
Scutaro stayed in the game for a while, but it wouldn’t be at all shocking to see Ryan Theriot manning the keystone in Game 3.
As expected, a weather system that is supposed to pour rain on New York this evening has caused the league to postpone Game 4 of the ALCS.
The game will now be played tomorrow, with Game 5 moving to Friday, which was supposed to be a travel day. There will be no travel day now, with Games 6 and 7, if necessary, taking place in Houston on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The postponement helps the Yankees some in the short term in that it gives their bullpen some rest and could allow them to go from a scheduled bullpen game, which is what they were going to use tonight, to giving Masahiro Tanaka the Game 4 start tomorrow. In the longer run, though, it works to the Astros’ advantage in that it allows them to skip their fourth starter (whoever that would be) or toss one of their big three on short rest and go with Zach Greinke and Justin Verlander over the next two games. Moreover, if the Yankees do manage to push this series to six or seven games — which they’ll have to now in order to win it — there will be four straight days worth of games, meaning no rest for that pen over the final four games.
Oh, and since the Nats swept the Cardinals, that means there’s no baseball tonight. Enjoy catching up on whatever it is you have on your DVR.
