Padres slugger Machado has fracture in left hand, status uncertain

SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego Padres slugger Manny Machado has a small fracture in his left hand and the team isn’t sure if he will require a stint on the injured list.

Machado was hurt when he was hit by a pitch in Monday night’s 4-0 win against the Kansas City Royals. Padres manager Bob Melvin said X-rays that night didn’t show a fracture, but Machado had a CT scan and MRI on Tuesday that revealed a fractured metacarpal.

After a 4-3 loss to the Royals on Wednesday, the star third baseman was asked if going on the injured list is a possibility.

“I don’t know. We’ll see,” Machado said.

The slumping Padres lost two of three to the last-place Royals and have dropped nine of 11 overall.

“It’s definitely a tough stretch for us,” said Machado, who is hitting .231 with five homers and 19 RBIs. “We definitely want to be out there and help this team win in whatever way. It’s just a bummer. It’s not ideal for us right now.”

The Padres are off Thursday before opening a weekend series against the Boston Red Sox.

“The swelling’s gone down tremendously. I definitely have more range of motion today. It’s just a matter of dealing with the pain,” said Machado, an All-Star each of the last two seasons who was runner-up in NL MVP voting last year.

He said he hasn’t tried gripping a bit since he got hurt.

“We’re kind of giving it a couple of days to let the bone heal for a little bit before we move on to something else,” Machado said.

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