The Cincinnati Reds season is not going to be saved by the cavalry arriving in the nick of time.
Matthew McLain isn’t either.
After making his Major League debut on May 15, McLain, a middle infielder, swiftly rose to the top of the Reds’ lineup. He was supposed to make his comeback from a month-long oblique injury on Tuesday, but on Sunday, he worsened it during a rehab game with Triple-A Louisville.
The inflammation, which McLain described as the Grade 2-level injury that first put him on the disabled list last month, was confirmed by an MRI.
The regular season is out, according to manager David Bell. “We’ll watch to see what transpires.”
After the MRI and test, Bell claimed that no long-term problems surfaced. If the Reds advance to the playoffs and win two or three postseason series, however, “you never know; maybe he makes it back.”
McLain is out for the year until further notice.
He admitted that it was awful, but he anticipated that it would be difficult to return and that it would happen quickly to the same degree as before. But for our team, I truly wanted to. And regrettably, it just didn’t work out.”
After Tejay Antone (elbow) and Harrison Bader (groin), McLain is the third injured player in four days that the Reds have decided won’t be back for even the last few games of the regular season or the postseason.
Bell remarked, “We knew we were exerting every effort to win him back.” “He exerted all of his effort.”
Before TJ Friedl overtook him this past weekend, McLain led the Reds in WAR for the season in just 89 games, hitting.290 with 16 home runs and an.864 OPS (baseball-reference.com).
“It hurts to get hurt, and it hurts that my season ended that way for me personally,” he remarked. Still, it’s a component of the game. It’s just another task that I will attempt to complete.
Rather than being a one-play occurrence, McLain, who claimed never to have experienced a strain or pull of a muscle or ligament in his life, characterized the setback as “it was just kind of like, ‘This really hurts,’ and then the next day it really hurt.”
There was a 48-41 lead when he kicked. Now, they are 12 or 13.
Regarding the light red patch of hair over his smile, he remarked, “I grew a’stache to be somewhat useful to make guys laugh or something.”
Spencer [Steer] found success with it, so I grew one. to be beneficial in some manner.