There's initial optimism that the injury Franchy Cordero sustained in Monday's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field isn't serious.
It certainly looked significant after Cordero suffered a right ankle sprain while trying to catch a ball over his head in left field off the bat of Randy Arozarena in the fifth inning. Cordero leaped into the wall and his foot got momentarily stuck in the padding. Cordero, who got up with assistance after being down in pain, had to be carted off the field.
Following the contest, Red Sox manager Alex Cora provided a rather positive injury update on Cordero, but he isn't completely out of the woods yet.
"Franchy, he's OK," Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. "He's going to get an MRI tomorrow to see if there's ligament damage. We doubt it. But of course, we have to wait and see. He's sore, of course."
Cora admitted that even he was holding his breath as he made his way out to the field with a member of the Red Sox training staff to check on Cordero.
"That was bad," Cora said. "I'm glad that he was able to get up and move around. You always go out there kind of thinking of the worse."
Cordero told reporters he was also fearing the worse, but felt better once he got into the clubhouse.
"I tried to field the ball and in this ballpark, with the artificial grass you don't feel the warning track, so you don't know how close you are to the wall," Cordero said through a translator, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. "But so far the scans of everything have been negative. It's just a sprained ankle."
Cordero added that he hopes the ailment doesn't keep him out of the lineup for an extended period of time.
Cordero ended up going 0-for-2 in the loss with two strikeouts as his difficult season continues. The 28-year-old is now batting .219 on the campaign with eight home runs and 29 RBIs.
