Yankees' pitcher J.A. Happ contracts hand, foot and mouth disease
USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale discusses the Mets’ nightmare season, which includes a wasted Cy Young-caliber performance by Jacob deGrom, a season-ending injury for Yoenis Céspedes and Noah Syndergaard’s bizarre disabled list stint.
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New York Yankees starting pitcher J.A. Happ pitches against the Kansas City Royals in the second inning at Yankee Stadium.(Photo: Noah K. Murray/USA TODAY Sports)
NEW YORK — If coxsackievirus, also known as hand, foot and mouth disease, becomes an epidemic that spreads throughout baseball, the New York Mets will have yet another dubious honor this season: Patient Zero.
One of the New York Yankees’ newest trade deadline acquisitions, left-hander J.A. Happ, has contracted the virus. He was sent home from Yankee Stadium on Tuesday with the virus, before the first game of a two-game set against the Baltimore Orioles.
It’s a mild case, Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman assured, but it’s still unclear how Happ contracted the same virus as Noah Syndergaard, nine days after Syndergaard and the Mets occupied the visitors’ clubhouse in the Bronx.
“He doesn’t have any idea and there’s a…