ST. PETERSBURG – Padres second baseman Luis Rengifo was removed from Saturday’s 7-6 defeat against the Rays after sustaining what appeared to be a serious knee injury in the seventh inning.
Manager Craig Stammen described it as a sprained right knee, and he said Rengifo was flying back to San Diego for further examination and imaging.
“Obviously, it doesn’t look good,” Stammen said. “Non-contact injury. We’ve got to take care of him and further evaluate it. Losing Luis right in the middle of the game, that situation is tough for all of us to handle.”
Rengifo, who is batting .291 in 38 games since joining the Padres in early July, was injured on a pivotal play that turned the game in favor of the Rays.
Leading 6-3, the Padres had red-hot reliever Bradgley Rodriguez on the mound, but the Rays loaded the bases with nobody out. Yandy Díaz struck a line drive to the base of the center-field wall to quickly bring in an initial run before chaos ensued.
Cedric Mullins, who was on second base, played it safely until he knew a catch couldn’t be made, then he stopped at third. Meanwhile, Taylor Walls, the runner at first base, had a better angle and rounded second aggressively, but tried to backtrack after seeing Mullins holding up.
By then, the throw from center fielder Jackson Merrill reached Rengifo, the cutoff man, near the second-base bag. Rengifo ran Walls toward third base. When Mullins broke toward the plate, Rengifo stopped in the vicinity of shortstop and whirled to throw home. But as he did so, his right knee buckled and the throw was yanked wide of catcher Luis Campusano, allowing two more runs to score.
Rengifo crumpled to the infield dirt, where he laid for five minutes before being assisted onto a medical cart and taken for examination.
Afterward, the mood was somber in the Padres’ clubhouse.
“Your first thought is, you know, 'Is he all right?'” first baseman Ty France said. “Obviously, it’s a freak accident. You hope he’s all right. But you just have to keep going. There’s nothing else you can do. There’s still baseball left to play and it’s not easy.”
“We’re not thinking about the game,’’ said shortstop Jake Cronenworth, who moved to second base after Rengifo left the game. “We’re focusing on our guy [Rengifo]."
Stammen said the Padres must put Saturday’s proceedings behind them, but that won’t be easy.
“I think the toughest thing is the emotional part about it,” Stammen said. “When you lose a guy who has meant so much to our team lately, when we’ve been playing well, he has been in the mix of a lot of the good things that have happened offensively.
“You feel for a teammate. You feel for a brother. He’s a part of the family. We got him late, but he has been a big part of the family. I know the guys love him in [our clubhouse]. He has been a big energy piece for us. We’re going to miss it, and we’re going to have to replace him somehow.”