Nick Ahmed Was Battling a Sore Shoulder

Nick Ahmed was asked after the game tonight about his slow start to the season not only at the plate, but in the field where he seemed a bit off the first week or so of the season. Recently he seems back to his old defensive form, so the question was posed as to what was different. In the course of that discussion he revealed that he suffered a shoulder injury in summer camp:

“We played our summer camp games and I didn’t get hardly any action …two or three groundballs maybe the whole summer camp, we hardly got any action. Physically I wasn’t feeling like myself, I was grinding through a couple of things, but I feel better now. There’s been more action in the last several games which has been good.”

Pressed on what he meant about physical issues he replied:

“I dove for a ball at the end of summer camp and jammed my (right) shoulder up a little bit and I was just working through some inflammation, but it’s gotten cleaned up the last week or so, but it’s starting to feel better.”

Asked if he was using a lower arm slot early on, and if it was related to that shoulder injury:

“I was just trying to find a way to make my arm feel good when I was throwing. I feel like I could throw accurately enough from those arm slots. I think I had one that was off line quite a bit that I just fumbled with the grip. ….. I was just trying to get to place where I could throw without pain and get through it. That’s just part of the game, that happens and you just gotta fight through it sometimes.”

Then he was asked if it impacted his hitting at all:

“It wasn’t painful in the moment. Looking back on the mechanics I think it might have altered the mechanics of it just from some tightness I was experiencing, but I can’t tell for sure”

It’s good to see Nick at full strength and playing the way he’s capable. He seems to really be hitting his stride on both sides of the ball.