Rangers place Bush on DL with right knee injury
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ANAHEIM -- The Rangers placed pitcher Matt Bush on the disabled list Monday with a sprained MCL in his right knee, and they called up reliever Nick Gardewine from Double-A Frisco.
Texas also called up infielder Ryan Rua from Triple-A Round Rock and optioned Phil Gosselin. The Rangers brought back Rua because Joey Gallo was still in concussion protocol and was not with the team in Anaheim.
Rangers manager Jeff Banister confirmed Gallo suffered a nondisplaced fracture of his nose, though he remains active on the 25-man roster. Bush and Gallo collided chasing a popup during the eighth inning of Sunday's 3-2 loss to the White Sox.
"We have a bit of a window so we can be conservative," Banister said. "... Look, their heads collided. We have a [player with a] nondisplaced fracture of the nose. We want to make sure we do our due diligence for both players. That's part of the concussion protocol and we need to make sure we take that approach."
Banister said Gallo was undergoing testing per the concussion protocol.
"Right now he's still on the medical side of things," Banister said of Gallo, who entered Monday leading the Rangers and tied for second in the American League with 35 home runs.
Banister also emphasized that Bush was placed on the disabled list because of the MCL sprain but still remains in concussion protocol. He didn't believe the injury would require surgery and said that he'd be reevaluated over the next few days.
Elvis Andrus, who was playing shortstop at the time of the collision, said he didn't hear either player call for the ball. But he noted that he didn't think any other pitcher on the staff would even be able to get to that ball other than Bush, who was selected first overall in the 2004 Draft as a shortstop. Andrus also mentioned that the team's defensive shift at the time, which had Gallo as the only infielder on the left side, could've led to some confusion.
"I talked to [Gallo] and he said right away, 'I think I broke my nose,'" Andrus said. "I had never seen blood like that on the field."
Banister had yet to speak to Bush or Gallo about the injury. But he made it clear his first question to them wasn't going to be about who called for the ball.
"We got a man walking off the field with blood on his face and the other can't walk and has a knot in his knee," he said. "We're assessing kind of where we are and who we need to bandage up, not who called what or who didn't call what."