Roman Anthony suffered a finger injury in late May that led to a long road back to the big leagues.
Just two at-bats into his postseason, he’s injured again.
Anthony, who batted leadoff as the designated hitter for Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Yankees in New York, was replaced by Andruw Monasterio for his third at-bat, after striking out twice on check swings earlier in the game.
After the game — which New York won 9-0 — manager Chad Tracy said that Anthony suffered an injury to the same hand that kept him out for three months this season.
“The hand,” Tracy said. “He took a check swing and then another swing, and his hand flared on him, and it got uncomfortable. So we had to make a move there.”
Anthony’s initial injury back in May also came on a check swing, with the Red Sox initially diagnosing it as a minor wrist injury. It ended up being a torn ligament at the base of his ring finger, something that prevented him from being able to swing a bat for most of the season.
Tracy could not confirm whether or not the recent injury is on the same exact area, but indicated that Tuesday’s discomfort was a new situation for Anthony.
“He’s obviously coming off that [injury]. Like, you’ll get a zinger every once in a while where you feel something and then it’s fine and it goes away,” Tracy said. “But today was — obviously coming out of the game — today some stuff happened that was more serious and was uncomfortable.”
Anthony did seem to aggravate his hand on Sunday, when the Red Sox played the Cubs in Tampa in the regular-season finale, a game which he left in the fifth inning. If that was the source of this injury, Anthony would be the second Red Sox bat lost in that final regular-season series, after Mickey Gasper tore his biceps in the first game of a doubleheader on Friday.
Tracy didn’t rule out Anthony for Game 2, saying, “it’s hard to say right now,” given the information that was available postgame.
