BOSTON – The Twins have found a Fenway Park quirk they dislike even more than "Sweet Caroline": Their players leaving early with injuries.
One day after knee trouble knocked Byron Buxton out of the game in the first inning, Sonny Gray departed in the second, having faced only seven batters before tightness in his right hamstring sent him walking off the mound and into the trainer's room. Rookie Josh Winder took over and pitched 5⅓ innings with only one blemish, but the Twins were shut out for the second time in three games, 4-0 by the Red Sox.
Gray, the veteran righthander acquired during spring training, easily retired Boston on 11 pitches in the first inning, but walked J.D. Martinez on five pitches to open the second inning, then left a 2-2 sinker over the plate that Alex Verdugo slugged into the seats in center field, more than 420 feet away.
He retired Trevor Story and Bobby Dalbec, but then signaled for manager Rocco Baldelli and athletic trainer Michael Salazar.
After a short discussion, Gray left the game. The Twins did not make an immediate roster move, apparently in hopes that Gray's tightness was because of cramping rather than a more serious injury.
"[My] second-to-last pitch, I felt a grab. He fouled it off and I kind of did a little stretch and was like, 'OK, how did that feel?' It didn't feel great, but I was like, 'It'll be OK. It'll be fine,' "Gray said. "The next pitch, I threw another slider to [Bobby] Dalbec and it was the same type of feeling."
With the manager on the mound, Gray asked to throw another pitch as a test, but Baldelli said no.
"He was actively stretching and trying to get it to loosen up. Once you see something like that …" Baldelli said. "Could he have thrown another pitch and maybe injured it worse than it was? Maybe. We wanted to nip it and get him looked at."
He summoned Winder, whose one-inning major league debut Tuesday was his lone outing of the season, and who had never before entered a game without a normal warmup. Yet the task at hand seemed oddly familiar to Winder.
"I faced [the Red Sox] twice in spring training, so that definitely helped," said Winder, who limited Boston to four hits and one run over five Grapefruit League innings. "[I had] a plan and some history. That kind of gave me some places to go and know what to throw and what not to throw."
He forgot not to go too far inside with a fastball to Xander Bogaerts, who yanked it over the left-field wall in the third inning.
But Winder faced 16 batters after that, and none hit more than a single or reached third base.
"It was off the plate, but Xander handles those pitches really well," Winder said. "It's loud in Fenway, they're excited for homers. But I think I did a good job just settling right back in."
He wasn't the only one who thought that.
"That was a huge pickup job by him. He went out there and basically gave us a full start out of the bullpen," Baldelli said. "We lost our starter in the second inning, and we still have a chance to win the game."
They did, except for the fact that righthander Tanner Houck allowed only one hit and three walks over 5⅔ innings, and the Red Sox killed three meager Twins attempts at rallies with double plays. That doomed the Twins to their third loss in four games.
Now they wait for word on whether their most accomplished starting pitcher is healthy.
"Tomorrow morning will tell a lot," Gray said. "If it's something that was just maybe a little muscle cramp or a muscle strain, or it was something more, tomorrow will be more of a tell than anything we can do today."
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Sonny Gray leaves after facing seven batters, Twins shut out 4-0 in Boston - Star Tribune
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