Encarnacion (finger) will be in the Blue Jays’ lineup for Game 2 of the ALCS on Saturday, ESPN’s Dan Shulman reports.
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The designated hitter suffered a left middle finger ligament sprain in Friday’s 5-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals and was replaced by Justin Smoak in the eighth inning.
He also came through with a big home run in Toronto’s 6-3 win over Texas in the deciding game of the American League Division Series earlier in the week.
It wasn’t clear when the injury was sustained. Jays manager John Gibbons said the finger usually gets better in a day or two, but in this case, Encarnacion would be returning in less than 24 hours. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.
Gibbons said giving Encarnacion a day off might help “but we need him, so he’s in there”. The Blue Jays slugger finished the game 0-for-3.
“This guy’s a gamer”, catcher Dioner Navarro said of Encarnacion. Ventura gave up five runs in seven innings in one start against Toronto this season.
Second baseman Goins came across the diamond, grabbed the ball and flipped it to Troy Tulowitzki, who caught it barehanded and fired in time to first to double up Moustakas. “But you always know when he releases that one hand and it turns into a one-handed swing…it’s probably irritated pretty good and every now and then that one swing just aggravates it even more, really”.
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The Blue Jay offense, the most powerful in the majors in the regular season, managed only three hits, courtesy of Josh Donaldson, Chris Colabello and Ryan Goins.
