Emilio Pagán got the kind of news the Reds wanted to hear.
After being held out of a save chance in Chicago on Aug. 13 because of a sore hand, Cincinnati’s closer underwent an MRI Friday and came away with a clean result. Pagán said the scan showed no ligament or tendon damage in the area between his index and middle fingers, clearing him to keep pitching through the discomfort.
“Everything’s clean,” he said. “So I should be ready to go tonight.
“It’s going to be uncomfortable (with the splitter),” he added. “Given the scan was clean, it gives me a little more ‘free of mind’ when I”m throwing it.
Obviously, injuries are going to happen; I can’t completely rule that out. But in my hand, everything is fine.
So it’s going to be uncomfortable for a little bit, but it should go away.”
Pagán said he pushed for the series finale against the White Sox before the MRI, but he also knew he had to be careful after trying to pitch through a groin injury earlier this season.
“Given what happened earlier (this season) when I had some uncomfortable feeling in my hamstring and tried to play through it and it got worse, I didn’t really have a leg to stand on and say I don’t want to get this image,” Pagán said. “I want to just keep going.
I tried that. They’re like, ‘we’re gonna try to do it the smart way this time and not push this any more than we need to.”
Francona backed the decision to hold him out.
“It was the right thing to do.”
Even with the hand issue, Pagán said the discomfort is limited to the split-finger fastball. He doesn’t feel it on his other pitches and believes the irritation is temporary, tied to his recent return to game action after a long layoff.
The right-hander has been sharp since coming off the injured list July 1, piling up eight saves with a 1.46 ERA after a rough start and a stretch in which he also pitched through the hamstring injury.
With Pagán unavailable Thursday, the Reds turned the ninth inning over to 31-year-old rookie Julian Garcia, who debuted in June. Garcia worked a two-run lead against the White Sox, and Cincinnati still came away with a 9-8 win.
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