In the seventh inning of today's 1-0 win against the New York Yankees, Brendan Ryan was drilled in the elbow by a Hiroki Kuroda fastball. It wasn't one of those hit by pitches you can just walk off -- it forced the shortstop, who was pretty obviously in a lot of pain, out of the game, with Munenori Kawasaki in as his replacement.

When there's an impact like that, the natural thing to worry about is a fracture, so we waited with bated breath on the results of the inevitable x-ray. Good news!

X-rays negative on Brendan Ryan's elbow, but he's highly doubtful for tomorrow's game.

— Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) August 4, 2012

Well, I guess being probably out for the rubber game in this series probably isn't good news. This is more the absence of really bad news. A serious injury to Ryan, who's been hitting far better (although still not well) recently, would really not be fun. But it doesn't look like we have to worry about a trip to the disabled list or an overabundance of Munenori Kawasaki anytime soon. Hurray!