Yet Another Pitcher Has The Baby Disease

Astros reliever Brad Peacock has been diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease and sent home from the team, becoming the third MLB pitcher this season to contract the viral infection that usually only affects infants and children under five years of age. What is going on??

Peacock, who has a 2.98 ERA in 55 appearances for a pretty deep Astros bullpen, last pitched on Sept. 5, but he started feeling ill during the team’s weekend road trip to Boston, according to manager A.J. Hinch He traveled with them to Detroit on Monday, but his symptoms worsened and he was sent home to Texas.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease is contagious, and symptoms include a fever and a rash on the—well, guess where. Hinch said he was unsure how long Peacock will have to stay away from the team, but the CDC says the infected can be contagious for “days or weeks,” even after symptoms disappear.

Peacock follows in the rashy footsteps of the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard, who came down with the disease in late July, and the Yankees’ J.A. Happ, who had it in early August. Both players were placed on the DL and missed 10 games. Neither was sure where they contracted it, though Syndergaard speculated it could’ve been at a youth baseball camp appearance. In general, cases of the disease spike in the summer, and anecdotally, some doctors are saying they’re seeing more cases this year than usual. That it’s now coming for our adult baseball pitchers is apparently just some strokes of bad luck.

The photos of the rashes associated with the disease are pretty gross, and you shouldn’t look at them, and just to be safe should probably avoid having kids.