MINNEAPOLIS -- Just two weeks after he returned from an agonizing three-month absence from the mound, Pablo López is dealing with another injury concern.
The right-hander was removed from the Twins’ game against the Guardians on Friday night at Target Field after four innings due to what the club called “right forearm tightness.” A formal diagnosis will not be available until after López undergoes imaging on Saturday, so it’s hard to know what the level of concern is at the moment, but it’s certainly not good news.
López was in good spirits after the game, but acknowledged that until there’s a more detailed read on exactly what he’s dealing with, he’ll be worried.
“Right now I'm overthinking it,” he said. “There's only so much that can be going on with the forearm or elbow, so my mind definitely takes me to worse places, worst-case scenarios, which is less than ideal. I'm trying to remember what I felt 12 years ago when I blew my elbow out, and I think I'm probably not helping my case. But I have to wait to get imaging done tomorrow.”
López's discomfort seemed to result from a play in the third inning, when he dove in the infield to field a ball that had struck him on the leg. He successfully tossed to first base to retire Angel Martínez, but lasted only six more batters after that.
“It was just a weird sequence,” he said. “Leading up to that play, the first 10 batters I faced, I was fine. After that play, I think I still had the adrenaline from that play. It was a quick inning anyway, but the next inning, something felt tense, something felt a little tight, something didn't feel all the way right.”
He seemed to retain his effectiveness over the remainder of his outing, though his fastball velocity diminished somewhat and he threw very few fastballs after the tumble. He finished the third and pitched the fourth, but did not come out to start the top of the fifth.
“I talked to [catcher Jhonny Pereda] after that inning real quick, like, 'Hey, that inning I felt something that probably wasn't right,’” López said. “So I talked to him real quick, and then I went straight to the head trainer [Nick Paparesta], and I'm like, 'Hey, am I going crazy or am I actually feeling something?' So he did a very quick crank down, and it feels fine. Then I kind of told him what I was dealing with, so we made the decision of stopping right there and then.”
López was in his third start back after missing three months due to a muscle strain in the back of his right shoulder. He allowed two runs on three hits over four innings on Friday, striking out two and walking two. He threw 61 pitches.