Kiké Hernández reveals he had baseball-sized hematoma in core muscle

Aug. 17—PITTSBURGH — When Kiké Hernández was placed on the injured list in early June, the understanding at the time was he'd been playing through a right hip flexor strain and would need some time to get right.

As it turns out, he was dealing with a whole lot more than that.

Hernández, who was activated Tuesday after missing more than two months, revealed prior to the Red Sox series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates that in addition to the hip issue he's also been dealing with a core injury that's bothered him on and off since late last season.

"The whole time I was on the IL with the hip thing, but it wasn't the hip thing what kept me off this long, it was a core injury," Hernández said. "I hurt my rectus the last game in Anaheim, the day after getting an MRI, and [I thought] I could keep playing and nothing would get worse. I was like 'I've been dealing with this pain for a long time and I can keep going,' and I ended up suffering another injury."

Hernández said he first began experiencing pain in his hip flexor towards the end of last season and that they treated it as tightness. When it returned in spring training and flared up periodically afterwards they continued with that approach until eventually they realized that something else was up.

"It wasn't until I got an MRI that we saw that I had a strain in my psoas muscle and I had a ball of blood about the size of a baseball sitting up here, which made a lot of sense," Hernández said, pointing to his abdominal area. "In my mind I was like 'my swing is broken, my mechanics are broken, I can't fix them, I can't really load into my backside. A couple of months later we realized I had a ball of blood in there sitting in the muscle that wasn't allowing me to use my core and legs the right way, and that snowball effect not realizing it on time, I probably missed a lot more time than I should have."

Hernández said he began experiencing serious pain during the west coast road trip in June and initially they were concerned he might have a gastrointestinal problem or Crohn's Disease.

"That series in Anaheim was pretty miserable and Oakland before Anaheim, the two day games I remember having to run a lot in center and every time I ran I wanted to crawl into a little ball in center field and have somebody come pick me up and take me to the dugout," Hernández said. "I'm glad it wasn't any GI issue, I'm glad it wasn't Crohn's, it was a hurt muscle that needed to be drained and here we are now feeling fully healthy, finally."

The actual experience of having the muscle drained, he said, was horrible.

"They used a needle about the size of this microphone right here and they put it through my back and drained the hematoma," Hernández said, pointing to NESN reporter Jahmai Webster's mic. "After we got done the doctor said they usually put people under for this and I told the doctor usually they tell people that before the procedure.

"I want to say I passed out twice during procedure," Hernández continued. "It was one of the most traumatizing experiences I've ever been through but considering that injury it was kind of instant relief as soon as they drained it."

Once the blood was drained, Hernández said there wasn't anything he could do but wait for his injuries to heal. He played a rehab game at Triple-A on July 8 knowing he wasn't ready, but hoped the adrenaline of playing might make the pain go away. When it was clear that wasn't going to happen, he was shut down again and admitted he wasn't sure if he'd be able to play again this season.

While he wouldn't definitively say the injury played a role in his slow start this spring, he and Red Sox manager Alex Cora both said he's much more confident at the plate.

"Watching him swing now, maybe he was feeling this before," Cora said. "I'm glad we shut him down, got all the information possible, I know it's Aug. 16 but we have him for a month and a half plus, hopefully, and he's going to make a difference."

Hernández was finally activated Tuesday after 70 days and was slotted in to bat seventh and play shortstop in relief of Xander Bogaerts, who got an extra day off after smashing a foul ball off his left shin during this past weekend's Yankees series. Cora joked that caught Hernández off guard and he needed to borrow Trevor Story's glove, and that he should plan on packing all of his gloves from here on out because he'll probably be playing a little bit all over the field going forward.

Wherever he bats and wherever he lines up on the field, Hernández is glad to finally be able to put one of the toughest experiences of his professional career in the rearview mirror and get back to baseball.

"I'm glad to be here, glad to be part of the team again and feeling like a baseball player," Hernández said. "That's what I am and I'm trying to help the team however I can and hopefully we get hot, make it to October and make another run at it."

Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.