May 30--HOUSTON -- White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu will miss Saturday's game against the Astros with a swollen right index finger.
Abreu went to the hospital Friday night after the finger became so irritated that he asked to be pulled from the Sox's 6-3 victory over the Astros. An X-ray on the finger was negative, the Sox said, but it was still swollen enough that he was held out from doing any work Saturday.
Sox manager Robin Ventura said the Sox will continue to monitor the injury, which Abreu said first popped up when he was in the batting cage in Chicago a couple of weeks ago.
"It looked like he had an air hose stuck in his thumb," Ventura said. "(We'll) treat it up and see what he can handle and go from there."
Adam LaRoche will take over at first base for Abreu, just his 10th game at the position after spending most of his career there up until this season.
"I just hope we can get him back in the lineup -- it's pretty swollen," LaRoche said. "We've gotta have him. Hopefully we can get him back in, whether it's the DH or first or whatever."
The Sox welcomed back right fielder Avisail Garcia to the lineup after missing five straight games with right knee inflammation. Garcia was noticeably excited to return to the lineup.
"He probably woke up early," Ventura said. "He might have been the Little Leaguer dressed at nine in the morning to get out here. He's as excited as he could be."
The Sox will continue to watch Garcia closely to make sure he doesn't aggravate the injury again.
"He ran around and looked fine yesterday, (but) how much is adrenaline and how much of it is him wanting to fake it," Ventura said. "I told him there's no reason to fake it. We have enough guys to deal with and get through, so don't try to be a hero."
