Jake Cousins leaves Yankees' finale in Seattle with right pectoral tightness
Jake Cousins left Thursday’s Yankees game in Seattle with tightness in his right pectoral muscle, but manager Aaron Boone said after the game that the team 'doesn't think it's too serious.'
Cousins entered in the sixth and threw just six pitches to two batters, hitting Josh Rojas and then striking out Julio Rodriguez on a slider. There didn’t appear to be any physical signs obvious, but Aaron Boone and trainer Tim Lentych came out of the dugout after the K and decided to lift Cousins for lefty Tim Hill.
Cousins hadn’t pitched since throwing 11 pitches on Sunday, and The Daily News’ Gary Phillips noted that “Cousins had his shoulder/arm wrapped up pretty good pregame” on Wednesday, but hopefully this was precautionary, and Boone doesn't believe any tests or imaging will be done.
"We don't think it's too severe. He just had some pectoral tightness, and it's been a little balky on him the last few days," Boone said after the game. "He kind of felt like he was good to stay in the game, but I just wanted to be cautious with the velo down a bit. As of right now, we feel like it's probably just a couple of days thing."
In this outing, Statcast data showed the righty’s velocity was down from average; his four sliders averaged 80.9 MPH with a max of 82.7, the average 1.2 MPH lower than his 82.1 season mark, and his lone four-seamer (91.8, down 3.1 MPH from average) and sinker (90.4, down 4.7 from average) were well off mark.
Losing Cousins for any length of time would be a huge blow to the Yankees’ bullpen, as he had pitched to a 3.29 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings this season entering Thursday.
