For a team that's surprising the baseball world by contending this season, the Cleveland Indians have sure had a lot of rotten injury luck. Tonight, it was outfielder Shin-Soo Choo who went down with a fluke injury. Choo took a fastball from Jonathan Sanchez off his left hand, and he was diagnosed with a broken left thumb. The early reports are that he'll be out about six weeks.
In Choo's absence, the Indians will call up Travis Buck, who has been up and down several times this year with the injuries to Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner. Yet Austin Kearns just keeeeeeps on ticking. Baseball likes to think it's funny, but it really isn't.
Choo had been having a down season, hitting .245/.332/.355, but he has been one of the Indians more reliable hitters in previous seasons. Without Choo, the Indians will probably use Kearns and Buck in a de facto right-field platoon.