The Boston Red Sox did not use Garrett Whitlock in a tight game on Wednesday night, and Chad Tracy revealed after the contest that he is dealing with some elbow inflammation.
According to MassLive's Chris Cotillo, the inflammation is something Whitlock has been dealing with for a couple of weeks, and the discomfort has been building up for a couple of weeks.
“I don’t think there’s anything structurally wrong with it," Whitlock said, per Cotillo. "Obviously, I’m sure there’s probably a lot of inflammation in there. My concern for need of any drastic measures is very low.”
The Toronto Blue Jays scored five runs in the eighth inning of a 1-1 game on Wednesday and ended up winning by two runs. The eighth inning is usually where Whitlock works, setting up Aroldis Chapman. However, that was not the case on Wednesday.
Whitlock has allowed runs in three of his last seven outings, which should have been an indicator that something was going wrong. He had allowed just one run in the 18 outings before that stretch. He blew a save in his last outing as well.
The team is reportedly placing him on the injured list and activating Greg Weissert on Thursday, per Cotillo. Weissert has pitched in 48 games for the Red Sox this season and has a 3.97 ERA. Losing Whitlock is a huge blow to the bullpen, especially when the team is trying to break out of a funk.