Freel, Pena day-to-day with injuries

[missionhockey21]

Freel, Pena day-to-day with injuries
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com

CHICAGO -- Ryan Freel broke out of his recent struggles at the plate, and Wily Mo Pena broke into the lineup.

But both found themselves in the training room before Wednesday's 8-2 victory over the Cubs was complete.

Freel strained his right quadriceps muscle while running the bases in the fourth inning and was replaced in the lineup by Ray Olmedo. Pena injured his left wrist while checking his swing in the sixth inning and was replaced by Jacob Cruz.

Both players will be evaluated during the team's off-day Thursday and are listed as day-to-day.

Freel's injury put a damper on what had been a good day for the second baseman. He broke out of an 0-for-19 streak with a leadoff home run on Rich Hill's first pitch of the game. In the fourth, he hit a two-run groundball single up the middle against Michael Wuertz.

But while running toward second on a hit-and-run with Ken Griffey Jr. at the plate, Freel tweaked his quad.

"It [first] happened a couple days ago, and it was a little tight," Freel said. "When I came back today, I was running along the line before the game at 100 percent. But it started to tighten up again. I didn't feel anything yank or pop or anything. It just tightened up on me."

Freel said it wasn't bothering him very much after the game.

"To come out of a game like that is more frustrating than anything," he said.

Pena was also frustrated, because his appearances in the starting lineup have been scarce since Austin Kearns' return from Triple-A last month.

Pena missed five games after injuring the same wrist in a similar situation on Aug. 20 of last season.

This time around, he was facing reliever Will Ohman when the injury popped back up.

"When I was playing, I wasn't hurting," he said. "But I tried to hold [the bat]. I had to let my hand go and hold the bat with [the right] hand."

Pena will fly to Cincinnati for evaluation Thursday. He said he expects to be back with the team in Milwaukee on Friday.

Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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[Geki Ace]

Wily Mo is pissing me off. He's too goddamned soft.

[BigRedMachine]

I agree, Pena seems to be very soft and hard to believe looking at his size. It was good to have Freel come out of the game before he actually tore the muscle and limit the amount of time he misses.

[CincyRedsFan30]

I can't blame Pena for getting hurt, but as I have been since the beginning of the year, I'm very concerned about Pena's propensity to hack at pitches. When he isn't hitting HR, I can see him struggling greatly. An update on Kearns vs. Pena for the year, despite Kearns' slow start and Pena's hot start:

Pena:
.260/.309/.816

Kearns:
.238/.315/.734

Still a nice OPS advantage for Pena, but Pena has struggled lately and Kearns has played very well.