Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said he was OK after limping off the field on his surgically repaired left foot in the eighth inning of a loss to the Cleveland Indians on Monday night.
Pedroia, who broke the foot last June and missed all but two games thereafter, was racing around second base on an Adrian Gonzalez single to right. Pedroia's feet got tangled and he fell face first before scrambling back to the bag and immediately wincing in pain. He said he jammed his left ankle and felt a "stinger" up his left leg, which caused it to go numb for roughly five minutes.
"I was just trying to get the feeling back," said Pedroia, who had a similar occurrence in a game in Anaheim earlier this year. "That's the part that's weird. I don't know, it's kind of, it's numb. I must've hit a nerve in there that shoots that stinger feeling up your leg."
After a visit from the trainer and manager Terry Francona, Pedroia was removed in favor of pinch runner Drew Sutton. Pedroia, who has a pin in the foot, was walking very gingerly when he left. He was examined by an Indians doctor and deemed fine.
Francona already had his sights set on a night off for his second baseman on Tuesday. This pretty much sealed it, but Francona is hopeful it will not be an issue going forward.
"He's doing OK. I think we all kind of had our hearts in our throats there for a minute," Francona said. "He got looked at by their doctor and he's OK. He popped his head in after the game and said he was fine. We were leaning towards giving him the day off tomorrow anyway. We have the noon game the next day, so I think it's probably a good idea to let him kind of rest a little bit. He'll be fine.
Pedroia played just 75 games last year due to the broken foot, which came when he fouled a pitch off the top of it in a game in San Francisco. He has been seen limping on it from time to time early this year, but has played in all but one of Boston's games.
