Latest On Red Sox’s Garrett Whitlock ‘Closest Thing To Good News’

BOSTON — The Red Sox took yet another blow to their pitching staff after right-hander Garrett Whitlock went down early during Sunday’s start against the Toronto Blue Jays, sending him to the 15-day injured list.

Ending up on the injured list for the third time this season through 10 appearances, Whitlock hasn’t had it easy performing as a full-time starter for the first time, however, Boston skipper Alex Cora anticipates the 27-year-old recovering rather quickly. The last time Whitlock ended up on the injured list was back in May.

“Bone bruise, so now it’s just about getting treatment, all that stuff,” Cora revealed before Boston’s matchup with the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park on Tuesday. “We’ll assess the situation next week and obviously no timetable, but for how bad it looked or whatever people were thinking ligament-wise and all that stuff, this is kind of like the closest thing to good news.”

In over half of Whitlock’s starts this season, he’s failed to surpass five innings, going 4-3 with a career-worst 5.23 ERA in 51 2/3 innings pitched thus far.

Whitlock lasted just one inning of work before departing early in Toronto, unable to retake the mound for the start of the second. Moving forward while Cora did express his faith in a relatively quick return to action, the Red Sox will still await patiently before establishing any sort of target date amid Whitlock’s recovery process.

“It just flared up and now we just gotta make sure we take care of him,” Cora explained. “… We just have to see how he reacts in the next few days and we’ll map it out and hopefully like I said, he’s back with us soon.”

That’s certainly encouraging considering where the Red Sox are placed in the wake of Whitlock’s latest setback.

Before kicking off a three-game series with the Rangers, Boston needed to readjust its pitching gameplan, yet again going with an opener — Brennan Bernardino — for the Fourth of July.