The Boston Red Sox suffered a few scares late Wednesday night.
And while the injury status of one player is fairly clear, it’s murkier for the other.
In the ninth inning of the Sox’s 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Christian Vazquez took a foul tip off the inside of his knee, an area which was unprotected by padding. He clearly was laboring, but finished catching the at-bat before Sox manager Alex Cora came out to check on him. Vazquez stayed in the game though, catching one more batter to end the inning.
Then in the bottom half of the frame, J.D. Martinez fouled a ball off his foot and hobbled around for a while before finishing the at-bat, working a walk.
After the game, Cora indicated that Martinez was fine, but that he’d have to wait and see Thursday how Vazquez was doing.
“J.D. is OK,” Cora said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Christian, we’ll see how he feels tomorrow, but it got him good, actually. But we needed him to grind the last at-bat. Actually I told him just pull the Tony Pena and get down on one knee and try to survive, but that’s the nature of the catcher. Both of our guys, and even Blake (Swihart) earlier in the season, they understand that. It’s a tough position, so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”
Both players have been important contributors offensively for the Sox, so losing them for any amount of time would be tough. With that in mind, the Sox likely will be waiting with some anxiety to hear how Vazquez is feeling Thursday.
