BOSTON — The Red Sox held off the White Sox on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep. But there was still a bit of concern, as both Jacoby Ellsbury and Shane Victorino were forced to leave the series finale.
John Farrell delivered some good news following Sunday’s game, though. While both Ellsbury and Victorino were banged up in the 7-6 win, the Red Sox skipper said that both are expected to return to the lineup for Monday’s game against the Tigers.
Victorino was the first to leave Sunday. He slid into first base in the fourth inning and re-aggravated a hip contusion. Victorino gutted it out for a bit, but he came up lame while grounding out in the sixth inning and left prior to the seventh inning after a conversation with Farrell and the Red Sox trainer.
“He’s got a contusion that he’s dealing with and it begins to affect some of the other areas that he’s been managing for a while,” Farrell said after the game. “We fully expect that he’ll be on the field [Monday]. But when he aggravates it, it begins to kind of shut some things down on him and he doesn’t feel the explosiveness, so precautionary, we got him out of there.”
Ellsbury left prior to the ninth inning. He flied out to center field in the bottom of the eighth and was replaced in center field by Quintin Berry in the ninth. Ellsbury exited because of a hand issue, according to Farrell.
“A couple of at-bats where he got jammed and that bat’s kind of banging on that bone inside the thumb, so we’re hopeful and expect him to be on the field as well [Monday],” Farrell said. “We’ll check them both, obviously, in the morning.”
The Red Sox kick off a three-game series against the Tigers on Monday afternoon at Fenway Park.
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