Quentin In Flux After Shoulder Injury

Carlos Quentin, the second-most productive hitter in the Chicago White Sox lineup, gave everyone a scare Saturday night when he dove to catch Craig Gentry‘s blooper in the first inning of the White Sox 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers.

Quentin tumbled over, putting all the weight of his 235-pound frame on his left shoulder, and he came up riving in pain.

After manager Ozzie Guillen and trainer Herm Schneider went out to check on CQ, they removed him from the game.

Fortunately for the White Sox, X-rays came back negative, but that still doesn’t mean much for Quentin, who is sore and will certainly be out of the lineup for the series finale on Sunday.

They also lucked out because his replacement, Alex Rios, ended up getting the game-winning hit in the bottom of the eighth when he doubled in Brent Lillibridge.

The Sox are off Monday to travel, which helps, but Quentin will have further testing done Sunday to really figure out the extent of the damage. Nothing is broken, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the woods yet. Muscles, ligaments, nerves – it’s all still in play except for the bones.

With A.J. Pierzynski and Phil Humber fresh on the 15-day DL and the team five games out of first, the White Sox really can’t afford to put another big name on the shelf for two-plus weeks, even if it means the emergence of Dayan Viciedo.

If there’s any reason to place Quentin on the DL, that likely means his season. There aren’t many shoulder injuries that warrant just a two-week stint. A 4-6 week injury could have him back by mid-to-late-September, but he wouldn’t have anywhere to play rehab games and get at-bats, so things could get very dicey trying to bring him back for the final couple weeks of the season.

Guillen was optimistic after the game, targeting the Anaheim series if they’re lucky, otherwise Seattle on Friday.

We’ll have a better idea of what’s going on by Sunday afternoon. You can follow me on Twitter to get the news as it comes out in the morning or you can check back here in the afternoon.