Right Hip Tendinitis Probably Pushes Athletics' Chapman Out of Astros Series
The A’s are probably going to have to get by without third baseman Matt Chapman for most or all of the five-game Coliseum series against the second-place Houston Astros that starts Monday night.
Chapman came out of Sunday’s game in the fifth inning after having made a tough stop and a spinning throw. An MRI taken Sunday night showed that he had right hip tendinitis.
It’s not at this point bad enough for him to go on the injured list, but A’s manager Bob Melvin suggested it was at leas possible that Chapman wouldn’t be ready to go for this series, which runs through Thursday.
“It’s certainly not an ideal situation at this point,” Melvin said. “We’ll hold out (using the injured list) as long as we possibly can. He’s more day-to-day. I’m not expecting him to play in the next couple of days. But well see how he progresses.”
Melvin, in an effort to get as many left-handed bats in to the lineup Monday against Houston right-handed starter Cristian Javier, moved second baseman Tommy La Stella to third base in Chapman’s stead, allowing the previous second base regular, Tony Kemp, also a lefty, to play at second.
“He has played third base,” Melvin said of La Stella, who didn’t play any third base this year before the A’s acquired him at the trade deadline from the Angels, but who played 29 games at third last season. “He’s played quite a bit of it, and he’s really comfortable with it.”
As for Chapman, Melvin said that having talked to third baseball about the progression of the right hip problem, it was likely that the hip was bothering him before the spinning throw that ultimately sent him to the bench.
“Sitting here and listening to him, I would say `yes,’” Melvin said of Chapman’s recent slide, which included 10 strikeouts in his last 11 at-bats. “I don’t know what he would tell you. He would probably defer and say, `Look, you’re banged up from time to time but you have to fight through it.’ But right now, I would say probably some, yeah.
“He said he felt it some in the Houston series, and maybe a little bit before that. And once he came back and started working out again, he was feeling it a little bit. But the spin throw that he had to make yesterday kind of put it over the hump to where he needed to come out of the game.”
Melvin said that shortstop Marcus Semien, who hasn’t played because of pain in his left side ended his streak of 275 consecutive games played ended a week ago Saturday, wouldn’t play Monday, but suggested he might play in the series, perhaps as soon as Tuesday’s doubleheader.
Semien took swings in the batting cage early Monday afternoon and was planning on taking a regular round of batting practice on the field before the game.
“He won’t play tonight, but I expect (he will) at some point in this series,” Melvin said. “We’ll see if that’s tomorrow. We’re not sure yet. He’s getting closer, though.”
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