Nothing causes a sense of hopelessness and disappointment quite like injuries. 

While it is frustrating to have a mediocre roster, a fan can at least temper his or her expectations and slowly get used to the idea that this season could be a lost cause.

But when you’ve got the players to compete and they just can’t stay healthy, it’s not so easy to take a rational approach and say ‘better luck next year’.  Unfulfilled promise casts a darker shadow than the stoic acceptance of your team simply not being quite good enough.

There is often little rhyme or reason to the injuries that occur.  A pitcher with a smooth delivery can suddenly feel something pop in his elbow, while another hurler with a violent action may merrily go along contorting himself for years with no ill-effects.  The only certainty with injuries is that they will strike every team at some point.  It’s the ‘when’ and the ‘who’ that makes all the difference.

The four day-games on Saturday perfectly illustrated how injuries can affect different teams

Just as he does before every game, Alex Rodriguez was fielding groundballs on the infield prior to the latest instalment in the Red Sox-Yankees soap opera.  Then disaster struck thanks to a freakish set of circumstances. 

Rodriguez was momentarily distracted by FOX commentator Joe Buck saying ‘hello’ and he turned back around precisely as a line drive by Lance Berkman fizzed its way towards him, like a heat-seeking missile, and thudded into A-Rod’s left leg. 

Rodriguez crumpled in a heap in semi-comical fashion (his teammates certainly thought it was funny until they realised he wasn’t messing around), while Berkman was left pondering a piece of misfortune that would both increase the Bronx cheers coming his way and force him to grin and bear a thousand ‘he finally hit something’ comments over the rest of the afternoon. 

The bad luck turned to good, relatively speaking, for Rodriguez as he limped from the field sporting only a bad bruise rather than a broken bone. 

Whatever the severity of the injury, no one from the Red Sox would have had much sympathy for Rodriguez.  That’s partly due to his lowly standing among the Fenway faithful and partly due to Boston considering it about time that someone else in the AL East suffered from the injury bug like they have done. 

The Red Sox have been victimized by a series of injuries to key players, most recently with first baseman Kevin Youkilis undergoing season-ending surgery on his right thumb.  They are grimly hanging in there in the AL East, helped by emergency call-ups like Darnell McDonald chipping in and prospects such as Ryan Kalish being given a chance. 

The Red Sox’s experience has shown that there are a few positive sides to injuries if you look hard enough. They can create an opportunity for someone else to play and that was fully in evidence in Toronto while news of A-Rod’s mishap was doing the rounds. 

Catcher John Buck hit the Disabled List with an injury to his right hand, suffered on Wednesday against the Yankees, and the Blue Jays responded by promoting their top catching prospect J.P. Arencibia. 

On his Major League debut against the Rays on Saturday, Arencibia smacked the first pitch he saw for a home run and then hit a second round-tripper later on in the game as Toronto launched a 17 run assault. 

That came on the same day Tampa Bay placed first baseman Carlos Pena on the DL. Now it’s up to them to follow the Blue Jays and Red Sox and find a good replacement for their injured man to keep their AL East challenge alive.

Sometimes it can be the prospect of a player coming back from injury that can spur another on. The Cincinnati Reds’ outfielder Drew Stubbs has been in terrible form of late and heading into the Reds’ game against the Cubs on Saturday his place on the roster was seen as being in jeopardy with Chris Dickerson due to come off the DL soon.  Stubbs responded by hitting a tie-breaking home run in a 3-for-4 day, helping his team to a 4-3 win.  Mind you, it didn’t stop him being dropped from the lineup on Sunday.

And, of course, if an injured player is able to come back with no lingering side effects, their return can be like making a major mid-season trade.  That’s perhaps what the Texas Rangers were hoping for from Rich Harden and the perennially injured starting pitcher gave them a boost with a strong seven inning showing against the Angels in his first game back on 31 July. 

Unfortunately for Texas, Harden’s second start against his former team, the Oakland A’s, on Saturday was less successful.  He lasted just 2.1 innings, walking five in the process and giving up a home run to Coco Crisp, another guy who has been plagued by injuries in recent years.  The A’s have suffered terribly from losing players to injuries over the last few seasons, so a healthy Crisp for the rest of 2010 would be a rare but immensely welcome piece of good news on the injury front in Oakland.

The ‘injury’ storylines produced by the four ‘early’ games on Saturday were followed by similar tales in the eleven games that took place in the early hours of Sunday morning.  The MLB regular season is a true marathon and the aches and pains can start to mount up now that we’re into the final third, while an injury to a key player down the stretch could make the difference between a team making October and just missing out. 

There’s little we can do but cross our fingers and hope our respective team stays healthy.  And if a key player doesn’t quite dodge a bullet, pray that it only leaves a bruise.