Clicking the new acrylic nail on the middle finger of his left hand with his thumb, Cardinals reliever Genesis Cabrera said the fix should be good enough to unleash a few fastballs Sunday and not any concern by Wednesday in the wild-card game.
“Feels good now,” Cabrera said. “See?”
Throughout this season, Cabrera has had to address a fingernail that cracks, comes apart, and causes great pain — “it really hurts,” he said — when he applies pressure to grip a pitch, especially his fastball. The solution is the fake nail, similar to ones Chris Carpenter needed during his career, teammates including Adam Wainwright use now, and someone on the Cardinals’ training staff will learn to apply this offseason.