Ahead of their second game against the Atlanta Braves on May 27, the Boston Red Sox revealed surprising injury news regarding Garrett Whitlock.
The reliever last appeared in Boston's May 24 game against the Minnesota Twins after it rained all afternoon. According to Mac Cerullo of The Boston Herald, Whitlock slipped on the mound on Sunday during his first warm up pitch and he's experienced soreness in his left knee.
The Red Sox have already sent Whitlock for imaging, which came back clear. The righty will be considered day-to-day. Cerullo reports that Whitlock threw off flat ground on Wednesday afternoon and that he hasn't been shut down from baseball activities.
Whitlock wasn't available in Boston's series opener against Atlanta due to his soreness, but he would've been a nice weapon to have in the bullpen in such a close game. The Braves are the best team in baseball by record, yet the Red Sox have done a decent job keeping up with them. Two of the Red Sox's three losses to the Braves were by one run — if Whitlock entered Sunday's game in the eighth inning instead of Tyron Guerrero, maybe the Red Sox could've prevented Michael Harris II's game-winning homer.
Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock dealing with knee soreness after slipping on mound during rainy game against Twins
Over six years with Boston, Whitlock has grown into one of the club's top relief arms, half of a deadly tandem with closer Aroldis Chapman. Whitlock has clocked a 3.20 ERA, a 1.12 WHIP, 25 strikeouts and six walks over 19.2 frames.
The classification of "day-to-day" doesn't offer a real timeline for when the Red Sox can expect Whitlock back in action, but they should stay careful with him. While Boston's offense is as underwhelming as it's been through the first third of the season, the pitching needs to be as strong as possible to have the best chance at winning games. The Red Sox's bullpen ERA is 3.09, the third best in the league — it's kept games close when the offense hasn't been able to reliably score.
The Red Sox already lost Justin Slaten to the injured list for a month and he's posted five scoreless appearances (out of six) since he returned on May 10. Whitlock doesn't seem to be in for the same fate, as long as Boston doesn't use him for a few more days.
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