Double the good news for injured Brewers

By foxsports
Published

A day after suffering a couple of injury scares to key players, the Milwaukee Brewers got good news on third baseman Aramis Ramirez and right-hander Yovani Gallardo on Sunday.

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke told reporters following Sunday's spring training victory over the Cubs that the MRI taken on Ramirez's injured knee came back negative for any structural damage.

Roenicke told reporters Ramirez is expected to miss a couple of days and still is sore after spraining his knee while legging out a double Saturday.

"(Our doctors) felt pretty good yesterday when they examined him," Roenicke said prior to Sunday's game. " . . . There's not a lot of swelling there."

With Ramirez likely out for at least a week and Taylor Green and Jeff Bianchi heading off to the World Baseball Classic, the Brewers are shorthanded at third base.

Roenicke said Bobby Crosby is expected to return Tuesday from a leg injury that has delayed his comeback attempt and will give the Brewers help at third base.

As for Gallardo, he was supposed to start Sunday's game against Chicago but was scratched with a right groin strain and instead threw a bullpen session. Roenicke told reporters the session was a success.

The next step was to have Gallardo go to Mexico's team meetings on Sunday night and return to the Brewers to throw an inning Tuesday before a decision is made on whether he pitches in the World Baseball Classic.

However, official World Baseball Classic rules state that once players report to their team, they can't return to their MLB team until after their country is eliminated.

"The doctors are going to have the say so in it, but sometimes when it's just a slight strain the doctor really can't tell unless the player fills him in," Roenicke said. "Yo said he'd be honest with us and let us know. I know he really wants to pitch in the Classic but he'll be honest with us."

While news was positive on Ramirez and Gallardo, reliever Kelvim Escobar left his first spring training appearance with what Roenicke told reporters was a lack of strength in his pitching hand.

That's not good news for a pitcher trying to come back from shoulder injuries that have kept him out of the big leagues since 2009.


Interviews for this story provided by the Milwaukee Brewers.

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