Injuries are a fact of life for professional athletes, and when they take place, a certain amount of waiting around is to be expected. It goes with the territory.
But for Kike Hernandez, who was activated Tuesday and found himself back in the lineup in the Red Sox' 12-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, his recent time away from the team proved trying.
Hernandez didn't suffer a baseball injury, the way he had back in May when a strained hamstring forced him to miss 10 games. No, Hernandez, despite being vaccinated, tested positive for COVID, forcing him into quarantine for a week-and-a-half.
For a day and a half, Hernandez felt steamrolled by the virus. Feeling some body aches as the team departed Boston for a seven-game road trip that was to begin in Cleveland, Hernandez chalked it up to the wear-and-tear of the season, or perhaps dehydration from the hot weather. He experienced none of the other classic COVID symptoms initially -- no congestion, no difficulty breathing, no sore throat or cough.
But when some of those were exhibited the following morning, he asked to be tested, and by 10 a.m., he had registered as a positive case. It would be the start of a team-wide outbreak that eventually touched nearly half the roster.
"The first day and a half was pretty miserable,'' said Hernandez, recounting his ordeal. "Then after that, the symptoms kind of drifted away. I guess I'm pretty glad I was vaccinated because this thing got me pretty good for a day and a half and I've heard of some other people -- not just in baseball, but throughout this whole thing -- have felt symptoms for way more than a day and a half. So, I guess I got lucky on that side.''
Isolated in his Cleveland hotel room, Hernandez watched from a distance as the cases grew within the Sox clubhouse. Soon, Christian Arroyo joined him, along with a member of the strength and conditioning staff. When the team traveled to Monday -- and Hernandez remained behind in Cleveland -- the outbreak continued: Martin Perez, Matt Barnes, Josh Taylor, Hirokazu Sawamura and Xander Bogaerts. And even when the Sox returned home, the virus joined them. Jarren Duran, Yairo Munoz and Nick Pivetta soon were added to the list.
Some have returned. Others have not, still recovering in various spots: Cleveland, St. Petersburg, or Boston.
"I felt (badly) because I guess you could call me Patient Zero on the team,'' said Hernandez. "I felt (badly) that, whether I was the first (case) or not, I was the first one that actually tested positive and after that, we lost like 40 percent of our team. ... My main concern was, 'How many guys did I give this to? My concern was the timing of all this -- late August, early September, especially the way we've been playing and where we were in the standings, we need every single game It's not great timing (to have this happen), but at this point of the season, it was probably the worst timing of all.''
After his symptoms dissipated, Hernandez found a new enemy: monotony. Again, routine is important to baseball players, but this was a new level. Hernandez was held captive in a Cleveland hotel room -- albeit, a deluxe hotel -- and soon had to battle the tedium that came with not being allowed to leave his room, lest he contaminate others.
Welcome to Groundhog Day.
"I couldn't do anything. I couldn't leave the room,'' he said. "I would get up, I would brush my teeth, I would order breakfast, I would order coffee, I would take a long shower. I would watch Netflix, play some games on my phone to entertain myself, then I would wait until 7 p.m. for the game to start. I went on Amazon to hook up my IPad to the TV and watch the games on TV.''
Eventually, as he felt better but the list of cases grew, Hernandez FaceTimed with teammates.
As game-time neared, he would put his uniform (including his hat and mask), "just like I was in the dugout. Trying to lighten up the mood. It was cool to see how engaged they all were watching the game. They weren't just shutting it down and doing their own thing. As not cool as it was, it was kind of cool.''
Now that he's back, the Red Sox will welcome his play in center, where, before he was sidelined, defensive metrics showed him to be one of the best defenders in either game. Following Sunday's debacle in the outfield, where the Red Sox outfield committed misplays and errors in abundance, his glove will be an upgrade.
But at the plate, it may take a while for Hernandez to resume the white-hot streak he was on, compiling a .409 OBP for a period of two months prior to his illness.
"Baseball's not that easy,'' said Hernandez. "I don't expect to go out there and do what I was doing right before I got sick. But the main goal today is to slow the game down and not try to do too much. Just try to do whatever little things I can do to help the team win.''
That didn't come Tuesday night, as Hernandez went 0-for-5. But he was healthy, with plenty of room to roam in center field and fresh air to breathe.
And it sure beat the previous 10 days, sequestered in a Cleveland hotel room.