Dustin Pedroia injured his thumb in May, sitting for nearly a week instead of going on the disabled list. He came back in early June and played through the injury for the rest of the month.
After aggravating the injury on Wednesday and leaving the game, Pedroia is finally going on the DL:
Dustin Pedroia headed to 15-day disabled list, according to major league source #RedSox
— Scott Lauber (@ScottLauber) July 5, 2012
Nick Punto will pick up a lot of the at-bats in Pedroia's absence, which is something of a drastic downgrade, as Punto is hitting .180/.295/.247 in 89 at-bats this year. But Pedroia's numbers are down this year -- .266/.326/.400 -- thanks to a Punto-esque June in which he hit .194/.269/.269. To use a baseball expression, Pedroia "hit like a guy with a screwed-up thumb."
This will be the first trip to the DL for Pedroia since he fouled a pitch off his foot in August, 2010, and missed the rest of the season.