BOSTON — Another day, two more injuries.
Over the past 12 days, the Red Sox have lost four players to the injured list, one to season-ending surgery, and three others to injuries that have not yet required an IL stint.
On Tuesday, they added two more to the mix — Garrett Whitlock and Rafael Devers.
Both of the new injuries came seemingly out of nowhere, starting with Whitlock leaving his start early. Despite surrendering two runs in the second inning, Whitlock looked sharp through four, needing just 54 pitches, but when he didn’t come out for the fifth, it raised a familiar red flag. The Red Sox later announced he exited with left oblique tightness.
Three innings later, after the Red Sox had mounted a comeback against the Cleveland Guardians on the strength of a Devers two-run double, the star third baseman didn’t come out to the field in the eighth inning. The Red Sox announced he exited the game with left knee discomfort.
Devers had a key hit in the sixth but had to leave the game after the seventh. (Paul Rutherford / USA Today)
A blown save by Kenley Jansen in the ninth, followed by an eventual 10-7 loss in the 11th, quite literally added insult to injury.
Whitlock felt the oblique pain in the third inning and said he wasn’t too concerned about it, but the team removed him for precautionary reasons. Manager Alex Cora said Whitlock would be re-evaluated on Wednesday.
Devers sat out four games last week with shoulder soreness, but this new ailment is unrelated. Cora said the team is discussing whether Devers should get an MRI on the knee because the pain came out of nowhere on a double play attempt in the seventh inning.
“It sucks, but we got to go,” Cora said. “We put up good at-bats halfway through the game, cleaned up a few things. At the end of the day, f—, we need to play better.”
The Red Sox have undoubtedly been playing poorly on this current homestand, but that poor play has been compounded by a rash of injuries.
The homestand began with an announcement of Trevor Story’s shoulder surgery. It continued with Nick Pivetta being sidelined with a flexor strain and then reliever Isaiah Campbell went down with a right shoulder impingement. A day later, infielder Romy Gonzalez went to the IL with a left wrist sprain after landing hard on that wrist on a diving play. During that stretch, Devers sat four games with a sore shoulder, the Red Sox stayed away from reliever Chris Martin as he dealt with tightness in his left (non-throwing) shoulder, and Tyler O’Neill collided with Devers on Monday, which resulted in O’Neill needing eight stitches for a gash above his eye.
That’s not counting Vaughn Grissom and Rob Refsnyder, who began the season on the IL, and have been rehabbing in Triple-A Worcester.
“It’s tough, man. It sucks. I’m not going to lie to you. It’s annoying,” Jansen said of the injuries. “That’s how it’s going for us lately.”
While Whitlock didn’t think his oblique tightness was a major concern, Devers was less convincing about a healthy prognosis.
“I don’t know what to think about it,” he said through translator Carlos Villoria-Benetiz. “I’ve never been the kind of player that’s been injured. Obviously it’s frustrating to deal with another pain. So I just leave everything in God’s hands to see what’s gonna happen but it’s frustrating for sure.”
The Red Sox are in the midst of a stretch of 19 games in 20 days and on top of the rash of injuries, the team has committed a multitude of errors and mental mistakes.
In the second, Triston Casas doubled to start the inning, then was thrown out trying to steal third in a baffling move. He said with two strikes, he thought he caught the fielders not paying attention and saw it as a chance to advance 90 feet so Wilyer Abreu would have a better chance for a scoring opportunity. In hindsight, Casas regretted the decision.
“It was very poor judgment and it was a low IQ baseball play, for sure,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened. It’s unacceptable for that to have happened the way it did. It’s a learning experience.”
In the fifth, Joely Rodriguez entered for Whitlock, allowing a solo homer and two singles before a sacrifice fly made it 4-1 Cleveland. Josh Naylor blooped a ball to right field that bounced out of Abreu’s glove and Andrés Giménez raced around the diamond with head-first slide into home as Abreu’s throw came in. Connor Wong appeared to tag him out on the play but the out was overruled when the review determined Wong had blocked the plate. Abreu was charged with an error, the Red Sox’s major-league leading 18th of the season.
Nevertheless, the Red Sox offense showed fight that’s been lacking in previous games and battled back to take a one-run lead with a five-run sixth inning on homers from Casas and Wong in addition to Devers’ two-run double.
But Jansen blew the save in the ninth. The Guardians took the lead in the 10th, the Red Sox tied it again in the bottom of the inning, but the Guardians finally put the game out of reach with three runs in the 11th to end it.
It marked the fourth time in 18 games the Red Sox have gone to extra innings, which ties them with Detroit for most in the majors. The Red Sox have given up a league-leading 13 extra-innings runs.
With so many players’ health statuses up in the air, the Red Sox continue to patch together a roster each night. Prior to the game, Cora said O’Neill was banged up and likely to be out Wednesday, but hoped he could return Thursday. Pivetta threw on flat ground for the third time in four days on Tuesday before the game and Gonzalez took infield work at shortstop with his wrist taped. Campbell began strengthening work on Tuesday after a few days of treatment and is hopeful his IL stay will be short. Martin pitched on Tuesday night and appears to be back in action. Refsnyder went 1-for-3 with a homer in Triple A and is nearing a return to the Red Sox. Grissom, who missed all of spring training, also went 1-for-3 for Worcester, but is further away, likely needing most of the 20 days allotted for the rehab assignment, which he began on Friday.
Despite some help on the horizon, the Red Sox now have two more hurt as they await the prognosis on Whitlock and, more of more concern, Devers.
“A lot of teams are missing a lot of guys,” Casas said. “Other guys are gonna have to step up.”
(Top photo of Wong tagging Giménez on a play later ruled to be obstruction: Paul Rutherford / USA Today)
