Dennis Sarfate's career is on the line.
The Orioles right-hander will undergo an angiogram Friday morning, hoping to find the cause of numbness in his right middle finger. The team hopes to have the results by the weekend. Sarfate, 28, left an outing in Toronto last week after experiencing numbness in the finger. Now, team doctors think a muscle mass in his arm is blocking a blood vessel.
"There was one instance that a pitcher had the same kind of symptoms as I had and he kept on pitching," Sarfate told The (Baltimore) Sun. "And what it did was shut off one of his arteries and went back to his heart and he had a stroke. So obviously that was the No. 1 concern."
The feeling in his finger returned this week, but Sarfate has yet to play because of concern for his well-being. Sarfate has a 6.39 ERA in eight appearances spanning 12 2/3 innings.
ORIOLES 5, TWINS 4: Lou Montanez singled home Melvin Mora in the eighth inning to give the Orioles a lead. George Sherrill closed out the victory, capping three innings of three-hit, one-relief from the Baltimore bullpen.
