Garrett Whitlock Hoping To Avoid IL Stint After Knee Injury originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Boston Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock is hoping to avoid an IL stint after hyperextending his left knee.

Whitlock revealed he suffered the injury during his warm-up pitches on Sunday due to the wet conditions.

“First warmup pitch on Sunday, obviously, the conditions were super wet, I kind of slipped and hyperextended my knee and everything,” Whitlock said. “We’re just dealing with soreness and kind of take it day by day and go from there.”

Since the injury, Whitlock had been unavailable for the past two games as he said the knee is still sore. However, he does think he can avoid the injured list as there is no structural damage.

“Luckily, no structural damage, like no ligament or anything like that. So I’m just kind of trying to get everything out of it now,” Whitlock said. … We're trying to do everything we can [to avoid that]. They’re saying like, ‘Let's treat it [as a] day-by-day kind of thing right now. We're just going to kind of go like that.”

The hope is that Whitlock can return to the mound very soon as he’s an impact pitcher for the Red Sox and a high-leverage option for Chad Tracy.

Whitlock is 3-1 with a 3.20 ERA in 20 games this season.

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