Such are the fates of baseball that Hiroki Kuroda spent nearly six innings dancing with history on the very same night Johan Santana made his first appearance since throwing a no-hitter for the Mets.
By the end of last night, however, Kuroda wouldn’t be dancing at all. He planned to use crutches to depart Yankee Stadium.
Just as the first-year Yankee was solidifying his value, dominating the Mets in a 9-1 victory at the 2012 Subway Series opener, he suffered a fluke injury that put his immediate future in doubt. The Mets’ Daniel Murphy drilled a comebacker that nailed Kuroda in his left instep and shot up straight in the air toward Alex Rodriguez, who caught it for the unusual out leading off the seventh inning.
X-rays were negative — “I feel fine,” Kuroda insisted — but the Yankees described the injury as a left foot contusion, and Kuroda walked gingerly from the clubhouse shower to his locker as he prepared for his postgame interview.
“I was actually fist-pumping right there,” Yankees catcher Russell Martin said. “You don’t want to fist-pump when somebody’s hurt. I’d trade that hit for him being healthy.”
The Yankees, who leaped over the Orioles into second place in the American League East with their victory, will know more today. “If he can’t put weight on [the foot], then we’re looking at some time,” the team’s general manager Brian Cashman said afterward. And just as Cashman’s $10 million investment in Kuroda was starting to look quite prescient.
Kuroda lost his no-hitter with two outs in the sixth on Omar Quintanilla’s double to left-center field, and he allowed only that hit while walking one and striking out seven in his seven innings. He now owns a 3.46 ERA, not too shabby considering how wildly inconsistent he came out of the gate.
“It seems like he’s starting to get in the swing of things right now,” said Martin, who caught Kuroda with the Dodgers from 2008 through 2010. “… It feels like he can put the ball where he wants to with any pitch right now. It’s fun.”
“I feel really consistent with my pitches and my mechanics,” Kuroda said through his interpreter, Kenji Nimura.
The 37-year-old has allowed five runs in his last four starts, totaling 27 1/3 innings. Those starts came against the meek offenses of the Royals and A’s and then the respectable lineups of the Tigers and Mets.
No, it doesn’t present the greatest test for a guy who spent the prior four seasons in the pitcher’s haven that is the National League West. Yet you can pitch your schedule and do no more, and Kuroda had been on a roll.
“I thought he was filthy,” the Mets’ Jason Bay said. “I think the box score and just the game in general showed that. … That was by far the best I’ve ever seen him.”
If Kuroda needs to go on the disabled list, or even skip just one start, then the Yankees would likely turn back to rookie reliever David Phelps, who made a pair of spot starts earlier this season. It would represent a drop-off from what Kuroda has given them lately.
Maybe the Yankees, winners of 11 of their last 15 games, can roll right through this. Maybe Phelps can display his full potential, or perhaps the forgotten Freddy Garcia can contribute after getting dumped from the starting rotation in April. Maybe the Yankees, still trying to fully harness youngsters Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova, will miss Kuroda dramatically.
Or maybe Kuroda will wake up today feeling much better, and the crisis will be averted.
We don’t know yet. What we do know is that this is part of the deal. A ballclub has a good news/bad news sort of night, sometimes both from one player, and it moves forward.
As Rangers manager Ron Washington says, “That’s the way baseball go.”
It could have gone better for the Yankees last night. Then again, on a night they pummeled Santana and kept pace with the first-place Rays, it could have gone far worse, too.