Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco wasn't quite himself on Monday night, and he ended up leaving the game with athletic trainers after 3 2/3 innings. The Indians have announced that it was left pectoral (chest muscle) tightness that chased Carrasco.
Carrasco was a bit more wild than usual, as he walked three batters in his 3 2/3 innings. Coming into the game, he had only walked eight in 48 1/3 innings. Also, his velocity started to drastically fall off.
That's not normal tiring through an outing. That's an issue to drop almost three miles per hour in just a few innings, so the best guess is it was injury-related.
Carrasco had been awesome this season for the Indians heading in, too, as he brought a 4-2 record, 1.86 ERA, 0.77 WHIP and 46 strikeouts into Monday's start.
Ace Corey Kluber is already on the DL for the Indians. If Carrasco goes the same direction, the Indians might be forced to move Zach McAllister temporarily into the rotation or dip down into the minors for someone like Ryan Merritt, Carlos Frias or Chris Narveson.