Ellsbury leaves game with shoulder injury
BOSTON -- Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who finished second in MVP voting last season to Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, left Friday's game, a 12-2 Red Sox win, after the fourth inning with a right shoulder injury. He was sent to Massachusetts General Hospital for further evaluation.
Ellsbury was injured on an inning-ending double play by Dustin Pedroia. As Ellsbury slid into second base Rays shortstop Reid Brignac landed on him.
"He was breaking on the pitch, I was holding my ground," Brignac said. "I just caught it and got rid of it like every infielder does in that situation. We leave our feet because when people are trying to take you out and your feet are stuck in the ground, that's how people break knees and ankles and stuff. ... We're taught to catch, throw, and get off our feet. Unfortunately I fell on his shoulder.
"It was just an uncontrollable circumstance. Neither one of us wish that would have happened. I wish that he would be fine. But it's just a baseball thing. It just kind of happened that way.
"I kind of landed on him, rolled off. He was yelling and screaming a little bit. I just went over to check on him, because obviously that's not how I play the game. It was just an unfortunate thing.
"As soon as I landed on him I knew something was not right. I could hear him. It sounded like a very painful thing."
"I wasn't trying to hurt anybody. It's now how I play the game. It was an unfortunate thing."
Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine rushed from the dugout to check on Ellsbury.
"He was in a lot of pain when I got there," Valentine said.
Although the Red Sox had no additional information on Ellsbury, Valentine said he was "preparing for someone to get here tomorrow," indicating a potential roster move.
Ellsbury missed all but 18 games in 2010 because of injuries. He rebounded to hit .321 with 32 home runs, 105 RBI, 119 runs scored, and 39 stolen bases last season.
Before leaving the game, Ellsbury was 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and a run scored.
"He's a huge part of our team and you don't want to see any of our guys go down," said Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. "We just got to wait for the result of his getting checked out."
