Corey Kluber’s return to the Bronx for the first time since throwing his no-hitter lasted just three innings on Wednesday night.
The 35-year-old veteran exited his start with shoulder tightness, a particularly worrisome are of discomfort after the righty pitched just one inning last season before suffering a tear in that same shoulder.
But after Wednesday’s loss to the Blue Jays, Kluber told reporters the tightness he felt had no relation to the pain he experienced a year ago.
“I wouldn’t say alarmed at this point,” Kluber said. “I wish we knew more at this point in time, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow, but it doesn’t feel at all like what we dealt with last year…Last year I think it was more, what I was feeling at that point in time was in one specific area, this just kind of feels in general to me. I can’t really pinpoint one area where anything was painful tonight. I just had trouble getting it going. More of a fatigued feeling.”
Still, given his recent injury history that has limited him to just 36.2 innings in his previous two seasons, the sight of Kluber disappearing into the clubhouse after three innings of work is concerning for the Yanks, who have watched Kluber become one of their most reliable starters in the past month.
“Always concerned when a starting pitcher comes out like that,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll obviously get some answers tomorrow. The physical exam was pretty good tonight, so we’ll just, instead of speculating, hopefully get some answers tomorrow and hopefully it’s just some tightness he had to deal with tonight that he couldn’t work through.”
Kluber said he felt the discomfort while he was warming up before the game, but after it didn’t subside following a few innings of work, the Yankees decided to play it safe and shut it down.
“It kind of happened when I started getting loose for the game out in the outfield,” Kluber said. “Just didn’t feel like I could get the arm going, felt kind of heavy. I don’t really know the best way to describe it. Not painful or anything. Tried to throw a few innings in hopes that the adrenaline would get it going, just wasn’t quite able to. I felt like it was compromising my quality of pitches, how I was able to execute pitches and stuff. That combined with trying to be smart and not push it, maybe risk injury to something else, we came to the decision we did.”
Kluber has become too important to the Yankees’ thriving pitching staff to risk further injury, especially when considering the risk that was already attached to Kluber when he signed with New York this offseason. Still, it was a tough choice for Kluber, who wanted to follow up his historic night with another strong outing to keep the Yankees’ winning streak alive.
“At that point in time, it was a tough pill for me to swallow,” Kluber said. “Kind of feel like a sense of letting your guys down, bailing on your team, whatever you want to say. But ultimately, trying to be smart and not pushing through something and risking something else.”
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