Detroit — It’s been one of those stretches that leads managers and team presidents to block the phone numbers of the training staff off their phone.
The Tigers have 13 players on the injured list. It seems like a player is coming out of a game dinged up every night. Like second baseman Gleyber Torres did on Saturday night with soreness in his left side.
But the Tigers got good news on Torres. He’s fine. He passed all the tests and he’s listed as day-to-day until the soreness abates.
“It’s just the way our IL has grown, it’s just a heightened awareness right now,” Tigers’ manager AJ Hinch said.
But he’s not going around looking for bad news. Like with his ace lefty Tarik Skubal, who will get the start Monday to open the Red Sox series.
There was concern during the seventh inning of his start in Atlanta when he paused to rub out some discomfort on the outside of his forearm. He threw one practice pitch and then struck out the side to finish up another quality start.
Still, there was some concern during the week whether those symptoms would return. They did not.
“I did love that he punched out the side with upper-90s fastballs at the end of that outing,” Hinch said. “Going into his work this week, I did talk to him and check in with him and it’s all systems go for (Monday).”
Skubal is bemused by all the fuss.
“I think a lot of people here were (worried about it), but I don’t think I was one of them,” he said. “I felt like I would be all right after the game. There was some day-one soreness but that was it. I’ll be all right.”
He said his between-starts bullpen went off without a hitch and whatever it was that caused the sensation in his forearm went away and stayed away.
“I’m not thinking about it at all,” Skubal said. “I’ve got to focus on the guys in the box. I don’t want to think about anything other than that.”
Hinch echoed that.
“You can certainly stress about a lot of different things,” he said. “Especially when you’re putting someone on the IL daily, it feels like, or pulling someone out of the game. But I like no news. That’s good news.”
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: What scare? Tigers’ Tarik Skubal says he’s A-OK, ready to face Red Sox
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
