Lowell has non-displaced rib fracture
By: Rob Bradford
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After undergoing an MRI and CT scan Friday, it was been determined that Mike Lowell has a non-displaced fracture in one of his ribs. The injury, which doctors tell him shouldn't prevent the first baseman from playing, was suffered in the third inning of the Red Sox' Aug. 20 game against the Blue Jays at Fenway Park when Lowell collided with Toronto baserunner John McDonald on a play at first base.
"I'm medically cleared to play and as long as it doesn't bother me it should be fine," said Lowell, who was in the lineup for the first game of Saturday's doubleheader against the White Sox. "There's really nothing to do. I feel fine. I feel like I'm swing the bat pretty well lately. I think I feel it more when I go through my tee routine and I get a number of swings in. That's when I feel it. Overall I think it's OK."
Lowell said the team had offered a CT scan after Lowell experienced continued discomfort, but he declined, believing that it was going to get better. He was examined by both the Sox and Tampa Bay Rays' team doctors. The rib that was injured is toward the middle of the chest, just to the left.
"It was bruised for three or four days, and after a week went by it felt like it wasn't getting any better and it was bothering me to get up and when I was sleeping and stuff," said Lowell, who has hit .270 in the 11 games since the collision with McDonald.
"I don't think it was getting any worse, but I expected to get better and it just stayed that way. The first couple of days after I expected it to get better. But I had an MRI and they told me the MRI that the No. 6 rib, close to the chest area, was the one with a non-displaced fracture."
