Caleb Durbin has enjoyed a resurgence at the plate over the past month after a terrible start to the season, but the Red Sox third baseman may have just suffered a big setback.
Durbin was removed from Wednesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies after suffering an apparent finger injury on a close play at first base.
The injury occurred in the top of the third inning when Durbin dove headfirst into the first base bag attempting to beat a throw from Rockies first baseman TJ Rumfield to the pitcher Kyle Freeland. Durbin’s left hand got jammed on the bag, and after being ruled out for the final out of the inning, he was removed from the game when the Red Sox took the field defensively for the bottom of the third.
The Red Sox announced shortly afterwards that Durbin had been removed with a left fifth finger subluxation, or a partial dislocation of his pinky.
Second baseman Anthony Seigler took Durbin’s place at third base, Marcelo Mayer entered the game to play shortstop and Andruw Monasterio bumped over from shortstop to second base.
After at one point ranking among the worst offensive performers in MLB, Durbin has turned his season around since the calendar turned to June. Enter Wednesday the third baseman was batting .317 with four home runs, eight RBI and a .931 OPS in 18 games this month, raising his batting average for the season from .183 to .220 over that stretch.
Durbin has also ranked among the top defensive third baseman in MLB all season, and almost immediately after leaving his replacement Seigler committed a throwing error from third, which eventually led to a Rockies run scoring.