Under The Knife 8/8/22

Brief Lives

Thanks for the day off. I watched “The Sandman” this weekend and it was exquisite. It’s one of my favorite books, to the point at which I have a tattoo based on it, so my hope was that they’d do it justice. They did and now, my hope is that Netflix re-ups it for a second season. There’s plenty of material. With “White Noise” coming this fall, it’s a big market for movies from books I love, and with “Heat 2” dropping this week, for books from movies I love. Anyway, let’s get to the injuries:

CLAYTON KERSHAW, SP LAD (strained back)

“It’s my back.” Clayton Kershaw’s words were as clear as day as he walked off the mound, into the dugout, and onto the IL. This isn’t new, but despite the Dodgers’ best efforts, it acts up now and again, pushing Kershaw off the mound unpredictably. It doesn’t get more serious, but things like missing games now, when the team is short-handed, and as he did in last year’s playoffs makes this injury more impactful than the standard recurrent back issue.

It’s clear that it’s not diminishing Kershaw’s talent. When it’s not acting up, he’s been as good as he’s every been, so it’s not like the Dodgers aren’t getting their money’s worth. The issue is likely an inflamed disc, pinching a nerve, with the symptoms coming when the inflammation is just enough to squeeze the nerve in the wrong way. Nerves are sensitive like that.

The problem here is that this isn’t new. This is recurrent in the strictest sense of the word. It’s happened before and it will happen again, and while the medical staff is doing all they can to maintain Kershaw, it’s still likely to happen again, perhaps at the worst time.