BOSTON — Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas suffered what appeared to be a fairly serious left leg injury in the second inning Friday night.
Casas, leading off the inning, topped a ground ball to the right of the pitcher’s mound. Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan came off the mound and fielded the ball, but bobbled it as he tried to gather it.
As Ryan attempted to underhand the ball the first baseman Brooks Lee, Casas sped up, seeing that he now had a chance to beat the throw. But as he took a long stride toward the first base bag, his left knee appeared to buckle and Casas went tumbling to the dirt, immediately grabbing the knee as he remained on his back, writhing in pain.
Casas was attended to by a member of the Red Sox’ training staff and manager Alex Cora as he remained on his back in the infield dirt. A cart and a stretcher were summoned, and Casas was able to get onto the stretcher, and eventually, lifted into the cart.
Romy Gonzalez replaced Casas at first base.
It’s likely that Gonzalez will see plenty of playing time at the position in his absence. The Sox have limited options otherwise on the current active roster. Connor Wong played there sparingly last season and outfielder Rob Refsnyder has played 36 games at first in his career, but none since the 2020 season.
In all likelihood, the Red Sox will turn to Vaughn Grissom, who has been getting playing time at the position for the last few weeks in order to expand his versatility.
This would mark the second straight season in which Casas’s season has been interrupted by injury. Last year, he dealt with a rib cage injury which limited him to just 63 games. He was out of the lineup from April 21 until Aug. 16.
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- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
