Stephen Drew Fractures Ankle; Out for Season

The Arizona Diamondbacks have announced that Stephen Drew’s season is over.  Drew fractured his right ankle sliding into home plate last night in the fourth inning of Arizona’s game against the Brewers.

After he was tagged out, all Drew could do was lie on the ground, writhing in pain.  On his way by catcher Jonathan Lucroy, Drew’s right ankle got caught underneath his slide.

The replay is grotesque, as you can actually see Drew turning his ankle back around after his slide came to a stop.  His foot turned in a direction no foot should go.

Arizona still isn’t sure of the extent of the damage done to Drew’s ankle, but the team knows that the 28 year old will be forced to miss the rest of the year.

"“It’s disappointing, and we know how important Stephen is,” Diamondback’s manager Kirk Gibson said. “But if you’ve been around the game a while, it happens. It’s fairly common that you’re going to lose star players. You hope it doesn’t happen to you.”"

The injury is certainly a tough blow to the Diamondbacks, as Drew has been one of the team’s best performers over the past few seasons.  In 2011, the short stop has 31 extra base hits and 45 RBI’s.

Arizona entered Thursday 4.5 games behind the first place Giants in the NL West.  Drew’s ankle doesn’t help the club’s cause, but the Diamondbacks have no room to make excuses as San Francisco has had its fair share of injuries including their loss of star catcher Buster Posey for the season.

With Drew heading to the disabled list, Willie Bloomquist is likely to make most of the starts at short for Arizona in the near future.  If the Diamondbacks wanted to make a move it doesn’t appear that there’s a big name out there on the market, as J.J. Hardy signed an extension with the Orioles and the Mets have said they’re not trading Jose Reyes.

For more on the Diamondbacks, be sure to check out Venom Strikes.