Red Sox Notes: ‘No Concern’ For James Paxton After Injury Scare

The Boston Red Sox had another hold-your-breath moment when James Paxton left Saturday’s walk-off loss to the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field with a knee injury.

But it appears to be just a scare and nothing more.

Paxton was removed from the game after four innings with right knee soreness but even for a pitcher that has a long history of injuries, Red Sox manager Alex Cora isn’t worried about the ailment.

“No concern,” Cora told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “He was sore, so we were thinking ahead. So, took him out of the game and he should be OK.”

Paxton shared in Cora’s optimism despite the veteran left-hander revealing he felt the soreness creep in over the final few innings of his last start against the Minnesota Twins. Paxton believes that the injury will not prevent him from making his next start, a good sign for an already thin Red Sox rotation.

“I had to come out early because my knee was a little sore there,” Paxton told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “Flared up last time in Minnesota. Just wasn’t quite back to where it needed to be today. I think I’ll be good going forward, though.”

In his four innings of work, Paxton allowed just one run on two hits to go along with three strikeouts. In eight appearances with the Red Sox, the 34-year-old owns a 3-1 record and a 3.19 ERA.

Even working through the ailment, Paxton didn’t feel far off from what he has delivered on the mound this season.

“Yeah, it was close,” Paxton said. “I just couldn’t quite brace on my front side. I was having a little bit of a hard time getting to the front of my breaking balls. But I was able to grind through it.”

Here are more notes from Saturday’s Red Sox-White Sox game:

— Kenley Jansen got saddled with the loss, but he deserved a better fate. Triston Casas mishandled a grounder — it was originally ruled an error but was changed to hit after the game — to give the White Sox life with two outs, but Jansen put the blame on him and not his teammate.

“Stuff happens,” Jansen told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “That happens and I miss my location and bloop single, nothing we can do about it. We just got to continue to play and come back tomorrow and win ball games.”

Jansen added: “Obviously, I want to get it done and it stinks. So, like I said, I’ll be accountable about it. I didn’t make my last pitch and we lost the ball game.”

— A strange situation occurred in the top of the eighth when former Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly inexplicably hurried off the mound and into the White Sox’s dugout during the middle of the inning before coming back out to finish the frame. There was no explanation at first for why he needed to briefly exit, but WEEI’s Rob Bradford reported following the contest that Kelly left to take his knee brace off.

— Like Kelly, who pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief and didn’t allow a hit, Andrew Benintendi had a terrific showing against his former team. Benintendi went 3-for-4 out of the leadoff spot.

— After striking out an eye-popping 17 times in the series opener, the Red Sox fanned double-digit times again Saturday. The White Sox accumulated 11 more strikeouts giving them 28 in two games against the Red Sox.

— Jarren Duran was a menace on the base paths. He swiped three bags, including a key steal in the top of the ninth. He is now 14-of-15 in stolen-base attempts on the season and has doubled his total in the same amount of games from last season.

— The Red Sox and White Sox close out their three-game set Sunday from Guaranteed Rate Field. First pitch is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.