When New York Yankees right-hander Bartolo Colon hobbled off the mound Saturday with a hamstring injury, you knew the fat jokes were coming. The guy is 5-foot-11, 265 pounds, so that was inevitable. And easy.
There is nothing funny about Colon’s injury for the New York Yankees, though. The 38-year-old has, amazingly, become the Yankees’ No. 2 starter after being plucked off the scrap heap by GM Brian Cashman last winter. Colon (5-3, 3.10 ERA) was pitching a shutout when he went down in the seventh inning Saturday.
Hector Noesi, impressive earlier in the season, was apparently already en route to New York to join the bullpen. The Yankees will have to dig deeper into their farm system for a replacement since Phil Hughes is not ready to return yet.
So, this is another hit for an already thin Yankee pitching staff. How many more of these can the team take?