Gregory Polanco returns to Pirates lineup, ignoring pain to shoulder, finger

Gregory Polanco felt pain Tuesday night when an injured middle finger on his left hand kept him out of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 5-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies. The pain wouldn’t permit him to grip a baseball or bat properly, so he had no choice.

Truth be told, Polanco is fighting through shoulder pain every day, the residual effect of shoulder surgery last September that cost him only 19 games this season after some projections had him out until June.

But here it is barely late May, and he has played in 21 games, with a .280 batting average, four home runs, five doubles and a triple.

“I won’t be 100 percent (this season),” Polanco said Wednesday afternoon before he returned to the lineup for the second of a three-game series against the Rockies.

The velocity on his throws from right field is diminished, but the Pirates need his bat in the lineup and can live with shortcomings in the field if the home-run bat returns. Without him Tuesday, they managed only three hits.

“I don’t know. I’m good to play,” he said. “I just want to help the team win. I don’t care about my throwing. I know my name in the lineup makes a difference. I want to produce.”

At the plate, Polanco said he feels the pain “sometimes.” But he added, “You get tired. I don’t care. I’m feeling OK. I’m trying to push through and play. I don’t care how I feel that day.”

Polanco played in a career-high 153 games in 2015, his first full season with the Pirates. Speaking in spring training last season, Polanco said he hoped to play in every game in 2018.

To that end, he worked out harder and eliminated fried food from his diet and was on pace to challenge that personal mark when he injured his shoulder in his 130th game Sept. 7 sliding awkwardly into second base.

He didn’t allow the injury to his finger — he hurt it Sunday diving back to first base on a pickoff attempt — to cost more than one game. Even at age 27, Polanco knows his opportunities to play in the majors are limited by time.

So, he plays the game with joy, plastering a wide smile on his face every time he gets a big hit. It’s the way he was raised.

“Dominicans, we enjoy the game,” he said. “My dad, cousin, uncle, they play the same.

“This is only one time, only one life, this is one chance we have.”