ATLANTA — One day after hitting two homers, Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Nolan Arenado was fretting about a pain he's never felt.
Arenado pulled himself out of a 5-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the fourth inning Sunday with what was described as left trunk discomfort.
He only hopes it's not too serious, especially when the Diamondbacks are vying for a playoff spot. They came into the day in a three-way tie with San Diego and Philadelphia for the final two NL wild-card spots.
“I am worried,” Arenado said. “I’ve never had that before, so I don't know what it is.”
Arenado said he initially felt the pain while bending over in the batter's box and it felt worse after he swung. He slowed up noticeably while running to first and quickly decided to leave the game.
“I felt a little bit of pain in my intercostal area,” he said in the clubhouse afterward, pointing toward his left rib cage. “I don't know. It just didn't feel right. I haven't really felt that before, so I had to get get taken out of the game.”
With the team heading to Boston for the start of a three-game series on Monday, Arenado will have as MRI to determine the extent of the injury.
“It doesn't feel great,” he said. "I felt it before the at-bat, but it didn’t feel like pain or anything. Then, when I swung, I was like ‘ahh.’ It wasn’t getting drastically worse, but it doesn’t feel right. So I thought I would let them know.”
That raised the concern of manager Torey Lovullo.
“The last thing he wants to do is take himself out of the game,” Lovullo said. “That's just his mentality. He's ferocious. He wants to play every inning of every game. When I got that news, it wasn't great.”
While expressing cautious optimism that the injury isn't serious, Lovullo was taken aback when told by the media that Arenado described it as an intercostal issue, referring to the muscles between the rib cage.
“That's news to me,” the skipper said. “If he's concerned, then that will ramp up my concern. We care about each other in this clubhouse.”
The 35-year-old Arenado, an eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, has made a big impact in his first season with the Diamondbacks. He is hitting .241 with 20 homers and 62 RBIs after being acquired in a salary-dump trade with St. Louis during the offseason.
“He's having a tremendous year," Lovullo said. "I thought about giving him the day off, but he hit two home runs yesterday and had a really nice day. He didn't want it, nor did he ask for it, but it's one of those things where you're got to be careful in different situations. He's just been playing hard, but something didn't feel right, so he spoke up.”
Arenado said he's used to the normal aches and pains at this stage of his career, especially when playing the day after a night game.
“It's a day game, so it's hard to get going," he said. "You always feel things that don't feel quite loose, but you get loose as the game goes on. I didn't feel it hitting it the cage today getting loose for the game. I didn't really feel anything until I bent over to put my leg guard on. Then I felt a little something swinging and that was it.”
Arenado was replaced by Ildemaro Vargas, who homered in the seventh to tie the game at 2, before Atlanta's Matt Olson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the frame.
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