Broken Finger Ends Sheffield’s Bid for National League Triple Crown

HOUSTON — Gary Sheffield of the San Diego Padres will miss the rest of the season because of a broken right index finger, ending his chance to win the National League’s triple crown.

X-rays taken Wednesday night in Houston revealed the fracture.

Although the Padres and Sheffield announced that he broke his finger swinging a bat, Sheffield revealed that he actually broke it Sunday night while putting luggage into his car.

“All off a sudden it just swelled up and I couldn’t hold the bat or the ball,” he said.

The finger started to swell up after the third or fourth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Astros.

“I felt it after the first at-bat,” Sheffield said. “I told him (Padre Manager Jim Riggleman) at the end of the game that it was really bothering me.”

Sheffield leads the NL in hitting with a .330 average, .003 in front of second-place Andy Van Slyke of Pittsburgh. He has 33 homers, one behind teammate Fred McGriff’s league-leading total, and is fifth in runs batted in with 100, eight behind leader Darren Daulton of Philadelphia.

“It seems like the nerve in his index finger is not allowing him to grip the ball or the bat,” Riggleman said.

Sheffield was trying to become the first player to win the triple crown since Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox in 1967 and the first in the NL since Ducky Medwick in 1937.