You don’t get extra bases for hurting, but playing through the aches usually earns you a nod from the dugout. A Tigers batter did plenty of both on April 8, turning a pair of nagging injuries into a 5-for-6 afternoon against the Jupiter Hammerheads.

The stat line alone is enough to make a hitting coach smile. The Detroit hitter went 5-for-6 at the plate, ripping a double, driving in three runs, and crossing the plate four times himself. It is the kind of offensive outburst that can carry a lineup, especially when the body is actively filing complaints.

And the complaints were loud. The injury report painted a picture of a guy who probably had no business holding a bat, let alone swinging one with authority. The batter was dealing with a sore thumb that had him listed as day-to-day for one day. If that wasn’t enough to sap a hitter’s power, he was also battling back stiffness, carrying a day-to-day tag for three days.

Usually, when a guy’s thumb is barking and his back is stiff, he spends the afternoon in the trainer’s room getting wrapped in ice and heat pads. Instead, he dug into the box against Jupiter and put on a clinic. Hitting is hard enough when you feel like a million bucks. Doing it when your hands and your spine are actively negotiating a strike is something else entirely.

The Tigers will take the production, of course. Five hits, a two-bagger, three RBI, and four runs scored is a line you hang on the clubhouse wall. But the real story is the grit it took to compile it. The medical staff will keep an eye on that thumb and back over the next few days, but for one afternoon, the hot batsmanship did all the heavy lifting.