NEW YORK — New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo is scheduled to start baseball activities on Sunday after getting a blood patch to aid in his recovery from an epidural injection to treat his ailing lower back.
The slugging first baseman received the epidural injection on Thursday to help with his chronic lower-back tightness, which led him to miss four games in early July and another five games in early August. Nonetheless, Rizzo was not placed on the injured list until Sept. 6 (retroactive to Sept. 3) after he was unable to engage in baseball activities due to migraines that stemmed from the epidural.
“He had a blood patch yesterday [Friday], which so far has been deemed really successful,” manager Aaron Boone said before Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays. “Immediately, they had him moving around and walking, and I think it freed him up right away. Headaches are gone so far. And if he’s still in this position tomorrow [Sunday], we’ll start ramping up. But he’s really excited about how good he feels.”
A blood patch would have consisted of injecting Rizzo’s own blood into the epidural space near his spine to help seal off any leaks after the earlier injection.
Boone said he was hopeful to have Rizzo back in the lineup toward the end of their upcoming five-game road trip, which starts Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox.
“We’ll see,” Boone said when asked about a timeline for Rizzo. “He’s been basically laying down for a while. At the back end of the trip it may be possible. But it’ll kind of depend on how the ramp-up goes. Hopefully, we’ve gotten through what we need to, and now we can start building that process. We’ll just pay attention to how he’s doing and how long it takes him to get rolling.”
Since the Yankees had to designate first baseman Ronald Guzmán for assignment after activating Josh Donaldson off the paternity list to make room in…
Source : espn
