BOSTON — The good news continued to flow at Fenway Park on Tuesday.
Coming off a walk-off win on Monday, the Red Sox beat their nemeses the Blue Jays again thanks to a 4-for-4, two-homer night from Connor Wong in a 7-6 victory.
But perhaps even more importantly for the future, the club got a good diagnosis on injured starter Garrett Whitlock.
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Four days after landing on the injury list with right elbow ulnar neuritis, Whitlock has returned to throwing. The right-hander felt a tingling and numbness sensation in his elbow in a side session just before his most recent start on April 22 and was placed on the injury list on Friday.
On Tuesday, though, Whitlock had a follow-up appointment with a doctor and there were no ulnar nerve symptoms on the exam. He subsequently threw 20 pitches at 45 feet and plans to throw again on Wednesday.
“It was good, good to kind of get back on track and get things going again,” Whitlock told The Athletic. “It felt really good, none of that nerve (tingling) feeling.”
At the time of placing Whitlock on the IL, manager Alex Cora said he hoped Whitlock would miss just the minimum two starts on the 15-day IL. While it seemed optimistic at the time, given a similar ulnar neuritis diagnosis for the Rays’ Jeffrey Springs resulted in Tommy John surgery, Tuesday’s news was a massive sigh of relief for the Red Sox.
Over the past week, the right-hander has received a dedicated treatment of anti-inflammatory medication as well as patches placed on his elbow with anti-inflammatory cream to reduce the swelling around the nerve.
The 26-year-old Whitlock opened the season on the IL as the team brought him along slowly following hip surgery last August. He made three starts with one brilliant seven-inning one-run performance sandwiched around two outings in which he allowed five runs each, totaling 11 runs in 16 innings. Despite the numbers, the Red Sox are committed to him in the rotation.
“We see him as a starter and we’ll make sure he’s ready to go and that’s how we’ll use him for now,” Cora said on Friday when Whitlock landed on the IL.
Whitlock had Tommy John surgery in 2019 as a minor leaguer with the Yankees before being selected in the Rule 5 Draft in 2020 by the Red Sox.
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Dr. Robert Parisien, an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, told The Athletic last week that Whitlock’s ulnar neuritis may be related to his 2019 Tommy John surgery, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate further ligament damage.
“This is not a sign that his ulnar collateral ligament has re-ruptured or anything,” Parisien said.
Still the Red Sox will move cautiously with Whitlock, even if the right-hander’s plan is to get back up to game action as soon as possible.
“Ramp up the progression and try to get back as quick as I can,” Whitlock said Tuesday night.
As for Tuesday’s game, it marked another step in the right direction for a plucky Red Sox team that has played well against formidable opponents this season. It marked their fourth straight win and the first time they’ve been three games over .500 since July 17. The Blue Jays walloped the Red Sox last season, putting up a shocking 16-3 season record versus Boston, but the Red Sox have taken the first two meetings this year with a relentless approach at the plate.
Christian Arroyo’s solo homer in the second put the Red Sox up early and they tacked on another run in the third on a double from Alex Verdugo and RBI single from Rob Refsnyder. Masataka Yoshida crushed his fifth homer of the season to center above the home bullpens in the fourth.
Tanner Houck held a tough Toronto lineup to one hit and two walks over four innings but tried to alter his approach in the fifth when his command started to feel spotty. It didn’t work. The Blue Jays slammed him for six runs in the inning, with the biggest blow a three-run homer from Daulton Varsho.
But the Red Sox lineup kept at it. Refsnyder and Yoshida each drove in another run in the bottom of the inning to bring the Red Sox within 6-5. With a short bullpen due to Kenley Jansen being down with back stiffness, Cora sent Houck back out for the sixth and the pitcher quickly got three outs on 12 pitches. Wong picked up his starter by hitting his first homer of the game to tie the score in the bottom of the sixth, after he’d already doubled and singled earlier in the game.
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“He’s got pop,” Cora said of Wong. “He’s got pop and he’s working hard with (hitting coach) Pete (Fatse), (assistant hitting coaches) Luis (Ortiz), and Rosie (Ben Rosenthal) to be on time and it’s working.”
Wong’s eighth-inning homer pushed the Red Sox ahead by a run and Josh Winckowksi, pitching for the second day in a row, secured the win with his first save.
“That was huge,” Cora said of Winckowski. “I honestly wanted to stay away from him, but obviously the game dictated something else, so we took one shot with him. I think actually the game changed when Tanner went out and gave us another inning. That was huge. We needed that and then obviously, (John) Schreiber, (Richard) Bleier threw the ball well.”
(Photo of Wong: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
Jen McCaffrey is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Boston Red Sox. Prior to joining The Athletic, the Syracuse graduate spent four years as a Red Sox reporter for MassLive.com and three years as a sports reporter for the Cape Cod Times. Follow Jen on Twitter @jcmccaffrey
