Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Sonny Gray exited Monday morning's start with an apparent injury in the third inning.
Monday, 2:50 p.m. ET: As noted by Tim Healy of the Boston Globe, Gray will have an MRI on Tuesday. It's not believed to be serious at this time.
MONDAY, AM: Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Sonny Gray exited his start against the Detroit Tigers on Monday morning with an apparent injury. Here's everything you need to know:
What happened
Gray had cruised through his first two innings of work, allowing just one baserunner. Entering the third with a 2-0 lead, he faced some trouble for the first time in his outing.
Detroit center fielder Matt Vierling ripped a leadoff double. Third baseman Hao-Yu Lee would ground out to second, allowing Vierling to move over to third. Catcher Jake Rogers blooped a lazy single to left, scoring Vierling, cutting the Boston lead in half, 2-1.
After a seven-pitch battle, Gray struck out the Tigers' leadoff man, shortstop Kevin McGonigle, for out number two. Gray jumped out to a 1-2 count on second baseman Gleyber Torres before losing him, resulting in a nine-pitch walk. After issuing the free pass to Torres, Gray was seen walking around the mound when he bent over awkwardly, appearing to stretch something out.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, pitching coach Andrew Bailey, and trainer Brandon Henry immediately trotted out of the first-base dugout to check on the starter. After a brief discussion, Gray returned to the mound to throw a couple of warm-up pitches. After attempting just one pitch, the Boston contingent removed Gray from the game after just 2.2 innings.
The Red Sox announced Gray exited the game with right hamstring tightness.
Where do the Red Sox go from here?
After using their long relief men, Jovani Moran, Ryan Watson, and Jack Anderson in extended outings earlier in the series against Detroit, the Red Sox will be putting a lot of strain on their bullpen to cover the remainder of this morning's finale.
If Gray does require a trip to the injured list, it would come at a bad time for Boston, which has seen several blows to their pitching depth in the last few weeks.
The Red Sox had two starters, Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval, returned from rehab assignments due to setbacks. Crawford experienced elbow soreness after his first start with Triple-A Worcester, something the Red Sox are hoping will be remedied by rest. Sandoval returned to Boston to get checked out after experiencing bicep tightness in his second appearance with Worcester.
Left-handed starter Tyler Uberstein, who made his major league debut out of the bullpen before being optioned back to Triple-A, is currently on the Triple-A injured list with shoulder soreness.
Luckily for the Red Sox, they held top prospect Payton Tolle back from his scheduled start on Sunday afternoon with Worcester, in case the rain that was persistent throughout Sunday's major league game led to a doubleheader on Monday. Tolle would be the logical replacement in the rotation for Gray, perhaps appearing as early as the Red Sox next series against the Yankees.
We'll know more about Gray's status when Cora meets with the media at the conclusion of this morning's game.
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