Omar Vizquel felt the heartbeat of Victor Martinez and said it was beating real fast.
The two were at first base during a game Thursday night between the Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays. Martinez at the time was sweating profusely, felt warm to the touch told Vizquel he thought his heart was beating very fast.
Vizquel, the first base coach for the Tigers, put his hand on Martinez’s heart. He also asked Martinez if he could run and Martinez told him no that he wanted to be taken out of the game.
However, that night Martinez was taken to a hospital where he stayed overnight after a battery of tests diagnosed the Tigers slugger with an irregular heartbeat. Detroit manager Brad Ausmus told reporters the news on Friday.
The Tigers will put Martinez in the team’s new 10-day disabled list.
It was a scary said Ausmus as it is not something at Victor’s age that is considered an issue or to worry about. However, added Ausmus getting through this small unknown factor it likely causing more of the anxiety Martinez feels than anything else would be.
Detroit called John Hicks up from Toledo in Triple-A. Hicks is a first baseman and catcher and he will take the place of Martinez on the Tigers’ 25-man active roster.
Vizquel spoke with Martinez on Friday and said that the Detroit designated hitter indicated he was feeling good and should be undergoing more testing. A possibility exists that he could stay overnight for monitoring said Ausmus.
Ausmus said he was unaware of any problem until when Martinez was taken out of Thursday’s game. His first thought had been possible dehydration.
Many times Ausmus said the body is able to correct itself and at times it cannot, but this weekend more should be know about the status of Martinez.
The DH, who is 38, is batting .261, with 5 home runs and 29 runs knocked in. He is playing in the third year of his four year deal of $698 million.
Ausmus said that as far as he knows it was the first time that Martinez had dealt with an issue of this type and was not sure of the length of time needed to recover.
