In the words of Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash, Pete Fairbanks’ “hip locked up” while the reliever was preparing to enter Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fairbanks halted his warm-up and went to the dugout once the inning was over. Cash told Kristie Ackert of the Tampa Bay Times and other reporters that according to the team trainer, Fairbanks’ “muscles look to be okay, but we saw him walk very gingerly from the bullpen and he was in some pain.” More will be known after Fairbanks undergoes further examination.
The reliever earlier spent just over two weeks on the injured list due to forearm inflammation and also missed a couple of other games due to symptoms of Raynaud’s disease, which manifests in the form of finger numbness. Injuries have proven a frequent setback for Fairbanks during his pro career, but he has been a very effective reliever when healthy, posting a 2.84 ERA over 117 1/3 innings since joining the Rays during the 2019 season. Tampa is 13 games into a stretch of 16 games in 16 days and while Cash is hopeful that his bullpen can hold up until Thursday’s off-day, the club doesn’t have much room to maneuver if Fairbanks has to miss even a few days to recover.
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