FORT MYERS, Fla. — Boston Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito will start the season on the injured list with a low-grade hamstring strain, the club announced on Thursday.
Giolito underwent an MRI on Wednesday afternoon after leaving Tuesday’s game with left hamstring tightness, and Thursday morning he told reporters in the Red Sox clubhouse that the results came back “as expected,” revealing the strain.
Prior to the team’s game across the state in Port St. Lucie, manager Alex Cora told Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe that Giolito won’t be available to start the season.
Despite the setback, Giolito maintained an optimistic tone when speaking to reporters a second time later in the day. The Red Sox starter had just finished playing catch and said he felt great, adding that he’s hopeful his ramp up for the season won’t be significantly disrupted.
“I went out and threw today and felt 100% fine, completely asymptomatic. I was actually surprised at how good I felt,” Giolito said. “If I were in charge I’d be like hey let’s keep going, let’s keep pitching. I don’t know what the return to play looks like, I’m just going to keep taking it day by day, do what they tell me to do.”
Giolito suffered the injury on the first pitch of Tuesday’s game, which was his first time back on a mound in game action since undergoing internal brace surgery on his right elbow last spring. Giolito went on to finish the first inning, allowing two runs while throwing 24 pitches, but he did not come back out for the second as planned.
Cora had previously announced that Giolito was lined up to pitch the club’s fifth game of the season, the series opener in Baltimore on March 31. Giolito said the original plan was for him to pitch in four spring training games leading into that regular season debut.
Now the earliest Giolito could pitch is sometime in mid-April, likely during the club’s second road trip to face the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays between April 11-16. Given how he feels right now, Giolito hopes he’ll be activated as soon as possible.
“I don’t see any sort of setback walking away from how I just played catch,” Giolito said. “I don’t see any sort of need to slow anything down as far as my schedule for pitching in game. Like I said, not my decision, but I feel really good.”
