Dodgers News: Scott Van Slyke Happy To Be Back And Healthy

The 2015 season hasn’t hit the halfway point and the Los Angeles Dodgers have already needed to use more than 40 players because of the injuries they’ve dealt with. Some have been season ending, and others have been shorter, but still required disabled list stints, like Scott Van Slyke’s recent back injury.

The outfielder missed about two weeks with a strained back muscle. He returned Wednesday fully healthy and pleased to have gotten through sitting out, according to Katie Richcreek of the OC Register:

It’s good to be back here at Dodger Stadium. It’s weird, when you’re sitting around doing nothing, time goes by really slowly,” Van Slyke said. “But then the next thing you know, 10, 12 days have passed and you’re back.”

While the Dodgers expressed little concern over the severity of Van Slyke’s back injury, he revealed being able to again swing a bat wasn’t the easiest of tasks:

For a week or 10 days, I didn’t swing and then the first few days back swinging, I could still feel pain in my back,” he said. “Then it was a matter of doing it without pain.”

Van Slyke played three rehab games with High-A Rancho Cucamonga, where he collected four hits in 11 at-bats, with one home run, one double and two RBIs. Upon being reinstated from the disabled list he returned in a big way.

Van Slyke started in left field and went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs in a loss to the Texas Rangers. Once primarily used when a left-handed pitcher was on the mound, Van Slyke has since become an integral part of the Dodgers’ outfield.

Through 36 games this season, he’s batting .272/.324/.446 with three home runs and 16 RBIs.

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