ANAHEIM — Considering the spate of major elbow injuries around baseball, Angels right-hander Chase Silseth couldn’t help but be alarmed with the discomfort he felt coming out of his start on Sunday.
Fortunately, an MRI showed only inflammation and no structural damage, and Silseth hopes to be back in three weeks.
“My heartbeat was racing, but seeing it was clean, it’s good,” he said Wednesday.
Silseth pitched five innings in a 12-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox, giving up home runs on each of his three hits allowed, but more troubling was how he felt trying to bend his elbow during the outing.
When it carried over to his postgame cool down routine, feeling what he described as a “shooting” pain, Silseth knew he needed further examination.
“If it was normal soreness, I would have probably waited a couple of days and just see, but this wasn’t like normal to me,” he said.
Two doctors looked at the results of Silseth’s imaging, and they were both in agreement he avoided serious injury.
Now Silseth, who was placed on the 15-day injured list Monday, is focused on addressing the swelling and identifying its underlying cause. The 23-year-old is interested to see if a previous finger injury caused him to inadvertently change his delivery.
“Maybe mechanics is what was causing that, and we’ll go into a deep look and see if that’s changed at any bit,” he said. “See if I have to make adjustments on that part because, you know, I’ve never had elbow problems. It must have been something that just kind of mechanically came about.”
Silseth has a 0-1 record and 6.75 ERA in two starts this season. He went 4-1 with a 3.96 ERA in 16 starts last season.
STICKING WITH SCHANUEL
First baseman Nolan Schanuel was held out for the second straight game, but Manager Ron Washington said the plan is to keep the 2023 first-round pick with the club for the time being.
Schanuel does not have a hit in his last 25 plate appearances covering his past six games, with his batting average dropping to .065 in that span.
“I think we’re going on what he did last year when he came up. And every player in Major League Baseball, in the big leagues that you have hopes for, you gotta give them an opportunity,” Washington said. “How far that opportunity will go, Schanuel will tell you.”
Washington said there would be a threshold at which it would make sense to send Schanuel down to the minors, but he wouldn’t make that determination just yet.
“If something’s got to happen, we will make a decision,” Washington said. “And that’s on anyone, not just Schanuel. But you have to give these kids that opportunity to struggle and see how they handle struggle, see if they can recover from struggle.”
NOTES
Right-hander Griffin Canning is now scheduled to start at Boston on Saturday. Since his last start against the Red Sox on Friday, when Canning gave up four runs in 4⅔ innings in an 8-6 loss, his next outing has been pushed back twice. Canning was originally intended to start against Tampa Bay on Wednesday afternoon, and then was slotted in to take the opener of the three-game series against Boston on Friday. …
Mike Trout kept up his strong start, going 2 for 3 with a double and a walk after homering in each of his previous three games, but he finished the game in the on-deck circle when Mickey Moniak struck out. Trout has five extra-base hits in his past four games.
UP NEXT
Angels (LHP Reid Detmers, 2-0, 1.64 ERA) at Red Sox (TBD), Friday, 4:10 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM
