BOSTON — Add David Phelps to the ever-growing list of injured Yankees starting pitchers.
Phelps left Sunday night’s 8-7 marathon victory over the Red Sox after the second inning and both Phelps and manager Joe Girardi said he has been dealing with right elbow inflammation for his last several starts. He will undergo further tests Monday, when the team returns to New York.
While Girardi downplayed the injury because a previous MRI showed no damage, as well as the fact the pain is not near a ligament, Phelps admitted to being apprehensive.
“The last time [the MRI] came back clean, but any time your arm is sore, there is some concern,” Phelps said following his shortest outing as a starter since he got just one out in a start against the Mets on May 29, 2013.
Girardi said Phelps might need a “timeout” and was unsure whether he would make his next start.
For a team that has already lost CC Sabathia (knee surgery) and Ivan Nova (elbow surgery) for the season and could lose Masahiro Tanaka (elbow) for the year, on top of Michael Pineda’s strained muscle that has kept him out since April, another injury in the rotation would be especially damaging.
“The last couple of starts it would loosen up and I was good to go,” Phelps said. “Today it didn’t loosen up. … It was stronger and worse. That’s why I said something.”
Phelps began the season in the bullpen after losing out to Pineda for the last spot in the rotation. But injuries — and Pineda’s pine-tar suspension — helped get Phelps back in the rotation in May. He performed well, going 5-5 with a 3.90 ERA in his new role before Sunday.
“I felt like coming into this start, I was throwing the ball the best I have in my career,” Phelps said. “Any time you talk about a DL stint, it’s frustrating.”
Phelps also struggled in his previous outing, a 4-2 loss in Texas, when he was done in by a four-run fifth.
On Sunday, Phelps was hit hard from the opening bell. He surrendered three runs in the first and then a two-run homer to Dustin Pedroia in the second before being replaced by Chase Whitley to start the third.