Very dramatic win last night for the Mets, with an excellent performance by Pelfrey and the game-winning homer awarded to Omir Santos in the 9th inning only after review of the instant replay showed (correctly) that the ball hit off the top of the Green Monster above the orange line. Nonetheless, I have to fault Gary Sheffield for not running harder and thus not being in position to score if the ball had been ruled a double. Sheffield’s been a professional baseball player for 24 years now, you’d think he’d have absorbed a basic lesson like not assuming a ball in the air leaves the park. But you can’t teach an old dog new tricks; Sheff has turned into a very valuable guy to have (at least for now) with Delgado out.
The bad news is K-Rod. Just when they get Putz back again after yet another brief absence, K-Rod collapses from back spasms:
Rodriguez…was put on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a local hospital following the 3-2 win over the Red Sox.
Mets officials had no further word on K-Rod’s situation two hours after the game and did not say if the problem was serious enough to involve a disk in Rodriguez’s back.
Rodriguez suffered the back spasms — the first of his career, he said — while running in pregame warmups and was unavailable to pitch the ninth inning. J.J. Putz closed out the game in K-Rod’s place.
The Mets gave Rodriguez muscle relaxers before the game, but he collapsed shortly after waving off help from trainer Ray Ramirez and trying to leave the clubhouse under his own power.
The Post observed Rodriguez weeping from the pain after being helped into a golf cart, and a stretcher and emergency medical technicians were called to the scene.
That doesn’t sound very encouraging.
UPDATE: The Post’s Twitter feed says K-Rod is moving around without a wheelchair this morning, which is…supposed to be good news.
I would leap to no conclusions regarding anyone’s back spasms. I used to get them, and then I quit getting them. Now I deal with various lesser back issues, but then I am twenty-plus years older than Rodriguez.
My experience is that doctors often don’t know why your back is doing whatever it is doing.
Sheffield…. Shades of Timo Perez.
I’m not too much older than Rodriguez and had my first run-in with serious back pain following a football game a few years back. It wasn’t terrible the day the injury happened, but when I woke up the next morning I wound up needing to go to the hospital. Not fun.