MILWAUKEE -- Carlos Gomez relayed an optimistic message about his sprained right knee, but was on crutches and in significant pain in the clubhouse after Milwaukee's 2-1 loss to Cincinnati on Thursday night.
Gomez, who will have an MRI on Friday morning, left in the top of the fourth inning after crashing into the wall catching a fly ball off the bat of Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips. Brewers team physician William Raasch examined Gomez in the clubhouse and feels the All-Star center fielder avoided serious damage to the knee.
"I feel really swollen and painful right now, but the doctor took a look and (said) it's not as bad as I feel," Gomez said. "He doesn't think it is something really serious. Right now, everything has started swelling and it's really painful right now. We are going to find out tomorrow if there is any damage."
According to manager Ron Roenicke, the Brewers knew Alex Gonzalez and Mat Gamel had serious knee injuries during a similar examinations last season. Both had torn ACLs and needed season-ending surgery.
"It's different," Roenicke said. " ... But you never really know until you have the MRI."
Gomez also hit his hip on the wall on the play, but wasn't as concerned about that injury. After laying on the ground for a few moments, Gomez got up and tried to run, but quickly knew he wasn't going to be able to continue.
Initially walking off under his own power, Gomez dropped his glove on his way to the dugout and was unable to pick it up. He slowly lost ability to walk and eventually had to be helped to the clubhouse by his teammates.
"I feel like when I hit the wall in the moment, my hip was really painful," Gomez said. "But when I started walking around, it started to feel better. When I started to run, my knee didn't let me. I have to take the big step tomorrow and get the MRI to see if everything is fine.
"The doctor said he doesn't think we expect something bad. The way he checked my knee, he doesn't expect something really dangerous. But the way I feel, it's different. It feels painful."
Never afraid to give up his body to make a catch, Gomez has been injured crashing into the wall twice this season. Gomez missed three games in late June after spraining his left shoulder robbing Atlanta's Andrelton Simmons of extra bases on June 23. Gomez also broke his left collarbone diving for a ball in 2011 and missed six weeks.
"It's part of the job," Gomez said. "You don't want to hit the wall, you don't want to get hurt, but sometimes you can't control that. It's part of the game."
Though he's risking significant injury with each play up against the wall, Roenicke isn't about to tell one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball to tone it down.
"It's just trying to figure out where that wall is," Roenicke said. "If you can take your head off the ball and find the wall and know exactly where you are, it helps. He's been caught a couple of different times coming down and kind of going into the wall.
"It's tough. He's going to go after balls. He's going to play hard, and you want him to play hard but you certainly don't want him to get hurt. If he is, we're certainly not as good of a team without him in the lineup or on defense."
Enjoying a breakout season in which he made his first All-Star team, Gomez is hitting .288 with a team-leading 18 home runs and 55 RBI. An extended absence would be devastating to a Brewers team already playing without the majority of their offensive firepower.
"He's been one of our guys that has stayed healthy," Brewers right-hander Kyle Lohse said. "It's unfortunate for him to go down like this. We just have to wait and see what the MRI says and hope for the best.
"You just cross your fingers and hope for the best with him. This kind of sums up the way things have been going. Nobody feels sorry for us. We just have to go out there and keep trying to (win) these games."
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