Atlanta Braves 3B Austin Riley out for 6-8 weeks with damaged hand

The injury-plagued Atlanta Braves have continual another significant blow, revealing Monday that 3rd baseman Austin Riley will missouton at least the rest of the routine season after breaking his right hand.

Riley was struck Sunday by a 97 milesperhour fastball from Los Angeles Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz in the veryfirst inning of Atlanta’s 3-1 triumph.

An MRI validated the fracture. Riley will missouton 6 to 8 weeks, which knocks him out through the routine season and mostlikely into the playoffs oughtto the Braves certify.

Atlanta held a two-game lead over the New York Mets for the last wild-card area heading into a three-game series versus the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies that starts Tuesday.

The Braves have won 6 straight department titles, however that streak is in jeopardy after a rash of injuries left the group 7 videogames behind the Phillies. A wild-card area appears the most mostlikely course to a seventh straight postseason look, with Atlanta holding a two-game lead over the New York Mets for the last area.

Atlanta currently lost NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. and pitching ace Spencer Strider to season-ending injuries. Several other essential gamers, consistingof 2nd baseman Ozzie Albies, center fielder Michael Harris II and catcher Sean Murphy, haveactually missedouton significant time.

This is the 2nd substantial problem for Riley, who has 19 homers and 56 RBIs in 110 videogames. He sat for 2 weeks in May with a strained muscle near his rib cage.

Now, he’s dealing with a much more major problem, leaving the Braves with a huge hole in their lineup. The trade duedate hasactually passed, and they puton’t have lotsof feasible alternatives in their company to fill the space.

Riley hit 37 homers last season. He has 153 homers for Atlanta giventhat his huge league launching in 2019.

Luke Williams, who is simply 2 of 17 on the season, took over Sunday at 3rd base after Riley was hurt, however barely appears like a full-time alternative. The Braves might relocation Whit Merrifield, presently filling in at 2nd base for Albies, over to 3rd and provide another shot to leading possibility Nacho Alvarez.

But Alvarez was simply 3 for 30 as the veryfirst option to change Albies, leading the Braves to return him to Triple-A Gwinnett.

The group did get some excellent news on the injury front, revealing that Reynaldo López hasactually been remembered from his rehabilitation task to start the series opener versus the Phillies.

The right-hander, who is 7-4 with a 2.06 ERA and made the All-Star Game for the veryfirst time, last pitched July 28 versus the Mets. He was raised after 3 innings and went on the hurt list with lowerarm swelling.

The Braves optioned reducer Jimmy Herget to Triple-A to make space for López.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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