PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Starling Marte and shortstop Erik Gonzalez’s full-speed collision in the outfield on Friday night sent both players to the injured list.
Marte will be out at least 10 days while recovering from bruises to his abdominal wall and right quadriceps. Gonzalez will miss at least two months after being put on the 60-day injured list with a fractured collarbone.
Both players were injured when they ran into each other trying to chase down a fly ball by San Francisco’s Yangervis Solarte in the eighth inning of Pittsburgh’s 4-1 victory on Friday night. Neither appeared to see the other. The ball squirted free after the collision. Gonzalez was able to walk off the field but Marte left in a cart as a precaution.
Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said Marte was running 25 mph and Gonzalez 19 mph at the moment of impact.
The team did not put an immediate timetable on when either player could return, though Tomczyk said both players will be back this season. Tomczyk called Gonzalez’s fracture “stable,” meaning he will probably not need surgery.
Marte is the third member of Pittsburgh’s starting outfield to go on the injured list. Right fielder Gregory Polanco is still recovering from shoulder surgery last fall and leftfielder Corey Dickerson is nursing a strained right shoulder.
The Pirates called up shortstop Cole Tucker and outfielder Bryan Reynolds from Triple-A Indianapolis to fill in for Gonzalez and Marte.
Pittsburgh’s first-round pick in 2014, the 22-year-old Tucker is hitting .333 with three home runs, seven RBIs and five stolen bases for Indianapolis. He hit leadoff in his major league debut on Saturday against San Francisco’s Derek Holland.
Reynolds hit .367 with five homers and 11 RBIs in 13 games at Triple A. He started in center field in place of Marte and hit fifth for the Pirates against the Giants, who sent Reynolds to Pittsburgh in January 2018 as part of the deal for Andrew McCutchen.
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