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By Jon Weisman
On a night the Dodger bats broke out with four home runs to take a 7-4 lead into the eighth inning at Arizona, the celebratory swings were muted by a potentially serious injury to Kenta Maeda.
The good news: X-rays on Maeda’s leg were negative, and the initial diagnosis was a right lower-leg contusion.
Maeda was struck in the right leg near the shin by a 95 mph liner off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt leading off the bottom of the sixth. After reeling in the ball and throwing Goldschmidt out, the right-hander collapsed to the ground in obvious pain.
Maeda down. pic.twitter.com/ntqe4ca9Ud
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) June 15, 2016
Badly limping. pic.twitter.com/WIjFZUCfuW
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) June 15, 2016
The Dodgers are waiting on for Jose De Leon and Frankie Montas to be stretched out to starter length in the minors, for Ross Stripling to return to action, for Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy to complete their rehab outings, and for Alex Wood and (much farther down the road) Brett Anderson to being theirs. Other minor-league starters on the 40-man roster include Jharel Cotton, Carlos Frias and Zach Lee.
Maeda has a 2.75 ERA through 13 starts this season, with 71 strikeouts and a 1.08 WHIP in 75 1/3 innings.
throwdeuce
My guess is Frias will need to make some kind of emergency start if Maeda doesn’t end up on DL altogether.