Huascar Ynoa has broken a bat or two in his career, and now the wood is fighting back.
Dugout frustration is part of baseball. Hundreds of Gatorade coolers have been demolished, gloves have been thrown across zip codes. It happens.
But when you're a pitcher, you may want to think twice about what you do with your pitching hand, and Braves starter Ynoa found that out the hard way over the weekend.
Ynoa landed on the 10-day injured list Monday after punching a dugout bench following his exit from Sunday's forgettable start vs. the Brewers and breaking a bone in his pitching hand.
Huascar Ynoa broke a bone in his pitching hand when he punched the dugout bench in frustration after coming out of Sunday's game. He will be out a couple of months, #Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "It's a shame," Snitker said. "Probably nobody that feels any worse than him."
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) May 17, 2021
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What's especially brutal is that Ynoa is off to the best start of his career: Through nine games (eight starts) he's pitched to a 3.02 ERA (3.72 FIP) with a 144 ERA+ in 44 2/3 innings.
the Braves make me want to punch things as well so I completely understand what Huascar Ynoa is going through
— fdu (@FakeDanUggla) May 17, 2021
Ynoa's frustration is understandable, as he was pulled from his worst start of the season to Milwaukee on Sunday: He allowed five runs on nine hits through 4 1/3 innings in the loss.
Maybe somewhat luckily for Ynoa, it's not the most unfortunate injury for a pitcher this season. That dishonor belongs to A's pitcher Jesus Luzardo, who broke his finger in an unfortunate video gaming moment.
Let this be a lesson, kiddos: Don't pick fights with inanimate objects. They will win most of the time.
