Dustin Pedroia Playing Despite Broken Finger
BOSTON (CBS) -- You could count on one hand the number of positive takeaways from the 2012 Boston Red Sox season. Thanks to a broken ring finger, second baseman Dustin Pedroia can't even do that, but he's at least adding one more positive before the season ends.
Pedroia will play Tuesday night against the Yankees, despite that broken finger which was expected to keep him out for the remainder of the season after he did not play Monday night in the series opener.
"I want to play. I want to be out there for the guys. Yesterday was tough -- we got our butts kicked," Pedroia said. "We got a lot of young guys on our team. Sometimes you get nicked up, stuff like that. It's part of the job. You get beat up, you slide into bases, get your finger stepped on or hit a base or whatever. But they know that I'm going to be out there, and they should be out there too, if it happens to them."
LISTEN: Pedroia Says He Just Wants To Play
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The season has obviously been a disappointment all around, and Pedroia admitted it's been an embarrassment.
"We're the Boston Red Sox," said Pedroia, who's batting .288 with two games left. "I never, ever thought in my mind we'd lose 91 games."
Pedroia, 29, missed time on two separate occasions this season due to a thumb injury, but with the offseason just days away, he said he didn't want to pass up the opportunity to play.
"I like playing, man. It's fun," Pedroia said, denying he's trying to send any message to the rest of his teammates. "Jeesh, I get to compete two more games, and then I got to sit around for six months and wait until I get to do it again, so why not? I got nothing else to do."
