BOSTON — The Yankees left Fenway Park on Sunday night holding their breath for Anthony Rizzo.
The veteran left the 9-3 loss to the Red Sox in the seventh inning after a collision at first base that resulted in what the Yankees termed as a “right lower-arm injury.”
An initial fluoroscope, which manager Aaron Boone described as a low-grade X-ray, was negative, but Rizzo is set to undergo more testing on Monday in New York.
“He’s in some pain, that kind of lower arm, in a number of places,” Boone said.
Rizzo was hustling down the line to beat out a ground ball when he collided with Red Sox reliever Brennan Bernardino, who was covering first base and dropped the flip from Dominic Smith in the process.
Bernardino was backing into the bag and his left elbow made contact with Rizzo’s left hip, sending Rizzo into a tumble on which he appeared to jam and/or land on his right wrist.
“When he didn’t get up right away, I could tell he was in some pain down on the ground,” Boone said. “Obviously, concerned there. Just certain movements, even out there [on the field], kind of knew right away he was in some pain with just little movements. So wanted to get him out of there. Hopefully we dodged something, but we’ll have to see what it reveals [Monday].”
Rizzo is no stranger to pain as he is regularly hit by pitches, but the fact that he remained on the ground for some time and was visibly in pain coming off the field worried his teammates.
”You don’t see that from Rizz,” said Aaron Judge, Rizzo’s close friend. “But he’s tough. I think he’ll be fine. … Once we get an idea of what’s going on with him, he’ll be right back out there doing his thing. Past couple games, past week or so, the guy’s been swinging the bat well, coming up with some big hits.
“We’re going to miss him, but the first thing is health.”
Catcher Jose Trevino, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow at the contact by Bernardino.
”The play was kind of weird,” Trevino said. “I thought, I don’t know, there might have been some extra pushing and shoving there at the end. We’ll see what happens. I don’t know how Rizzo fell. I don’t know if he fell on his own or how that was, but we gotta look at the replay.”
Last year, Rizzo was playing first base when he collided with Fernando Tatis Jr. on a pickoff throw, but in that scenario Rizzo’s head and neck took the brunt of the force from Tatis’ leg.
That injury ended up derailing Rizzo’s season.
