HOUSTON, Aug. 10 -- Houston Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell will begin the strike with his left hand in a cast, suffering a broken bone when hit by a pitch in Wednesday night's 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres. Bagwell, the favorite to win National League Most Valuable Player honors, was struck on the left hand by an Andy Benes pitch in the bottom of the third inning.
Bagwell was replaced by Chris Donnels after striking out in the fifth. He was taken to Houston's Methodist Hospital, where X-rays confirmed a fracture of the fourth metacarpal bone in his left hand. The 26-year-old slugger is expected to miss the next three to five weeks, which may become a moot point if baseball players go on strike Friday as expected. 'I've been telling you guys for the last three weeks that anything can happen in this game,' Bagwell said. 'Strike or no strike, something can happen, like breaking your hand, and that's what happened, just like last year.' Bagwell broke the fifth metacarpal in the same hand and missed the final 20 games of the 1993 season after he was hit by a pitch by Philadelphia's Ben Rivera on Sept. 12. Bagwell is second in the National League with a .368 batting average and established single-season Astros records for home runs (39), RBI (116) and extra-base hits (72). He shares the club record for total bases (300) with Cesar Cedeno and had his 18-game hitting streak snapped after he went 0-for-2 Wednesday night. He ranks in the top five in the National League in 11 offensive categories, including runs, hits, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, multi-hit games, walks and sacrifice flies.
