Evan Longoria’s quadriceps injury hasn’t hurt his hitting any, as he went 3-for-4 with a homer and two doubles in the Rays’ win yesterday, but he was clearly running at significantly less than full strength on his home run trot. “I kind of felt like Kirk Gibson going around the bases a little bit,” Longoria told Lyle Spencer of MLB.com. Following the game manager Joe Maddon admitted that he’s told Longoria to take it easy on the bases after missing the final 10 games of the regular season:
He’s under strict managerial orders not to run hard, although he can’t anyway. I want him to guard that leg. As we get deeper in the playoffs, it shall get better.
Carl Crawford called it “a little crazy” that Longoria was able to have such a monster game despite the injury.