Miami Marlins relief pitcher Carter Capps to undergo MRI for sore right elbow
Carter Capps is scheduled to undergo an MRI on his right elbow on Monday.
But the Marlins’ hard-throwing reliever doesn’t believe the tests will reveal any significant damage.
“It’s nothing serious,” Capps said. “I passed all the [preliminary] tests. It already feels better now. I have full range of motion.”
Capps was pitching to the Padres’ Matt Kemp in the eighth when he felt his right arm tighten up. After walking Kemp and then throwing two strikes to Justin Upton, Capps came out after being checked on the mound by Marlins manager Dan Jennings and team trainer Sean Cunningham.
“It didn’t feel good, and I just couldn’t get it to loosen back up,” said Capps, who missed time last season with a right elbow strain. “It’s definitely not how it felt last year or anything.”
Losing Capps for any length of time would be a severe blow for the Marlins. He has evolved into the team’s top setup man, with a 1.16 ERA in 30 appearances. He has the majors’ highest strikeout rate for any pitcher, with 58 strikeouts in 31 innings.
REED’S DEBUT
Even though he was drafted two spots behind Jose Fernandez in 2011, it took pitcher Chris Reed more than two years longer to make his big-league debut, which came Saturday.
“Jose’s a freak,” said Reed, who was the 16th overall pick by the Dodgers out of Stanford.
Reed, a left-hander the Marlins acquired in a July 15 trade with the Dodgers for pitcher Grant Dayton, needed only 12 pitches to take care of the Padres in two scoreless innings of relief work Saturday.
FORGOTTEN MAN
Aaron Crow has been the forgotten Marlin.
But the right-handed reliever the Marlins acquired from the Royals in an offseason trade before having his season wiped out by Tommy John surgery is a few weeks away from starting a throwing program.
“It’s been tough because I’m used to playing,” Crow said.
Crow said even touching a baseball feels odd after missing so much time.
“When balls come into the dugout and I pick them up, they feel weird,” Crow said.
Crow averaged 63 relief outings per season in his four years with Kansas City but hasn’t thrown a pitch for the Marlins while making $1.9 million. Crow said if everything goes well, he could be ready to pitch again about a month into the 2016 season.
COMING UP
▪ Monday: Marlins RHP Tom Koehler (8-7, 3.38 ERA) vs. New York Mets RHP Bartolo Colon (9-10, 4.96), 7:10 p.m., Marlins Park.
▪ Tuesday: Marlins LHP Brad Hand (1-2, 5.12) vs. Mets LHP Jonathon Niese (5-9, 3.63), 7:10 p.m., Marlins Park.
This story was originally published August 2, 2015 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Miami Marlins relief pitcher Carter Capps to undergo MRI for sore right elbow."