Detroit Tigers All-Star second baseman Gleyber Torres left Saturday’s game against the host Cleveland Guardians in the first inning due to a neck contusion but apparently avoided a serious injury.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch termed Torres’ removal as precautionary, while Torres indicated to reporters after Detroit’s 1-0 win that all was fine.
Torres was injured on a force play at second base to end the inning off a grounder hit by teammate Riley Greene. Cleveland shortstop Brayan Rocchio had to lunge to grab a behind-the-back flip from second baseman Johnathan Rodriguez and Rocchio’s elbow connected with the sliding Torres.
Torres stopped on the ground before the bag and was attended to for a few minutes before exiting the field.
“He got elbowed in the neck, which kind of jarred him,” Hinch said. “He needed a minute and just felt a little off. So we erred on the side of caution and took him out. (Trainers) came to me in the third or fourth inning and gave me the notice that he was doing well and everything was fine. Hopefully, that was just a scare. It obviously looked painful and was kind of an awkward collision.”
Javier Baez moved from shortstop to second base in the bottom of the first and Mark Sweeney entered to play shortstop.
Torres, 28, walked in the first inning to extend his on-base streak to 18 games. The All-Star starter is batting .279 with nine homers and 44 RBIs in 77 games.
–Field Level Media
