Both Jeff Karstens and Jose Tabata exited Saturday night’s 4-0 win over Milwaukee due to groin injuries.
Karstens injured his right groin after making a pitch to Norichika Aoki with two runners on and one out in the eighth inning. After being evaluated by the training staff, Manager Clint Hurdle elected to remove the right-hander and call upon the bullpen to finish off the eighth inning and remainder of the game.
Karstens missed two months of the season due to a right shoulder injury in late April. But while making a rehab appearance in Altoona, the right-hander was removed from the outing with a similar injury that Karstens said was much worse than what he felt on Saturday night. Karstens said he doesn’t expect to miss any time with the injury.
“When you’re out on the mound you really don’t know how bad it’s going to be,” Karstens said. “I think all the tests came back pretty good, at least from my standpoint.”
“This one is nowhere near as bad,” Karstens said on how it compares to the injury on rehab. “I don’t see myself missing any time or anything like that. I should be ready to go in five days…We’ll come in tomorrow and see how it is. I don’t see it being very sore or anything. I don’t see it being a big issue…I felt it kind of on the pitch to [Nyjer] Morgan, and then again on the first pitch to Aoki. The guys did a really good job of picking me up and getting me out of that situation.”
Tabata was removed from the game due to discomfort in his left groin after the sixth inning. Tabata connected for an RBI double in the fifth, and said he felt the discomfort as soon as he rounded first base. Tabata said after the game that he feels better now then he did, and he will wait and see how he feels tomorrow.
“He first tweaked it running around first,” Hurdle said. “We tried to monitor. Just find a way to score without injuring it anymore. He thought he had tweaked it is all. We’ll see.”
