After his dramatic first-ever walk-off home run on Sunday afternoon, Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal caught reporters by surprise when he admitted that he played through a left shoulder injury during the first two weeks of the new season.

“I was kind of going through a little space where I had a AC joint [injury] and I was trying to get away from that and see how I could calm it down. That was kind of affecting me.”

While Grandal’s admission caught reporters off guard, it might explain why the 26-year-old La Habana, Cuba native hit only .189 (10 for 50) with a lackluster .283 slugging percentage during the month of April.

Yasmani Grandal receives the much-coveted Gatorade bath from fellow (frequent) recipient Justin Turner after his first career walk-off home run on Sunday afternoon. A few minutes later Grandal admitted to reporters that he played through a shoulder injury during the first two weeks of the season. (Photo credit – Jill Weisleder)

Although Grandal said that it was his right shoulder that was injured, he kept pointing to his left shoulder. The confusion was (somewhat) cleared up when he said that it was his back shoulder that was injured. As Dodger fans know, Grandal is a switch-hitter but bats left-handed most of the time, thus making his left (non-throwing) shoulder his back shoulder – the one that he kept pointing to.

Over the past week Grandal said that he has changed his approach and is now more aggressive at the plate. Is it working? Although it is a very small sample size, Grandal is hitting .500 (4 for 8) including his walk-off home run on Sunday afternoon since May 1.

“It was just a matter of being more aggressive,” said Grandal. “I’m going to take my walks, I know when they’re going to walk me, I know when they’re pitching around me [to get to the pitcher], I just can’t do more than I’m capable of doing. Early in the season I got a lot of guys on base, a lot of guys on second, and I thought I had to drive them in. But at the same time, you’ve got to look behind and who’s hitting behind you. If you just get on first [base] and let the guy behind you do his job then we’re going to be good.”

Grandal first noticed the shoulder discomfort while playing winter ball this past off-season but felt fine once spring training began.

“I had it when I first started playing in the Dominican [Winter League] and as soon as I was done it kind of calmed down,” Grandal said. “I worked out during the whole off-season, I didn’t feel it, I didn’t feel it in spring training and all of a sudden playing against Anaheim I went and did a swing and kind of felt it a little bit. I didn’t think it was anything big. The next day I slept and came back and I was like ‘Oh, I feel it again,’ so we just got to it.”

Getting to it was definitely the wise thing to do and Grandal is grateful for the Dodgers training staff in helping him get through this.

“We have a great training staff here, they were able to get me healthy,” Grandal said. “It wasn’t a huge injury, it was just an injury where it just bothered me here and there. It’s not that I couldn’t catch or I couldn’t really hit, but there were certain movements that I did that bothered it a lot and we just needed to get it over with.”

Grandal is confident that the injury is now behind him and believes that this is why he is heating up at the plate.

“It’s done. Like I said, we’ve got a great training staff here and they were able to get it within a week and a half, two weeks,” said Grandal.

If the Dodger backstop is indeed now healthy – as his early May numbers suggest – Dodger fans might finally begin to reap the rewards of having their beloved Matt Kemp traded away.

Might.