Marlins reliever Carter Capps not too concerned with elbow stiffness
MIAMI -- The Miami Marlins seem to have avoided another devastating injury as reliever Carter Capps exited during the eighth inning of Sunday's game with right elbow stiffness and is listed as day-to-day. He will undergo an MRI Monday morning for precautionary reasons.
"I'm not really concerned, just frustrated it tightened up when the game's on the line," Capps said. "It definitely gives me a lot of comfort like I said it already feels better now. I have full range of motion. I passed all the tests. It's really not an issue, just unfortunately cramped up on me. Didn't need it to happen that at-bat."
Capps, who struck out San Diego Padres outfielder Will Venable before Yangervis Solarte reached on an infield hit, walked Matt Kemp on four pitches. He felt the discomfort on the second pitch to Kemp. He got ahead of Justin Upton at 0-2, but second baseman Miguel Rojas noticed something on the 97 mph fastball and called for head athletic trainer Sean Cunningham.
Through 13 pitches, Capps hit 98 mph four times and 99 mph twice on the radar gun. He usually flirts with triple digits.
The infield, manager Dan Jennings and Cunningham convened on the mound to check on Capps, who didn't throw any warmup pitches and exited. Lefty Mike Dunn replaced him and retired the next two batters in a 2-0 ballgame Miami would go on to win 5-2 on Adeiny Hechavarria's walk-off homer.
"At first I saw him shake his arm a little bit then he grabbed his side, so I thought maybe it was an oblique," Jennings said. "I told Sean to go out there thinking it might be his oblique, and that's when he said he had a little stiffness in his elbow.
"Right now it's just right elbow discomfort. It's a day-to-day thing. His last two pitches were in the upper 90s, but once that occurred there's no way you're going to leave in a guy like that with that special of an arm. And so we made the decision right then on the mound to go get him and Dunner came in and did a heck of a job."
The 24-year-old righty is 1-0 with a 1.16 ERA in 30 outings this season. His 98.1 mph fastball ranks third fastest among major-league relievers with a minimum of 20 innings, according to Fangraphs. His 57 strikeouts since being recalled on May 20 lead all relievers.
Last season, Capps missed most of the season with an elbow sprain. He avoided Tommy John surgery after seeing Dr. James Andrews and became a September call-up. His success in 2015 quickly placed him in the set-up role for closer AJ Ramos.
"It tightened up on me when i was facing Kemp and it just didn't feel good and just couldn't get it to loosen back up," Capps said. "It was sore, but it's definitely not how it felt last year or anything. It was just one of those things it cramped up on me and got stiff and couldn't seem to figure it back out. It's nothing serious."
You can follow Christina De Nicola on Twitter @CDeNicola13 or email her at cdenicola13@gmail.com.
