On the second pitch to Baltimore’s Chris Davis in the eighth inning, Toronto reliever Brett Cecil said he felt “a little tug” in his groin.
The worse was yet to come.
On the next pitch, the Blue Jays pitcher let the ball fly and then fell to the ground from the pain, soon to be surrounded by his teammates and training staff from the Blue Jays dugout.
Cecil was forced to leave Friday night’s game here at Camden Yards with what the Blue Jays are describing as tightness to Cecil’s right groin.
It was iced immediately after he left the game and the Blue Jays said the injury will be re-evaluated before Saturday’s third game of the four-game series.
Of course Cecil is hoping to be able to avoid the disabled list as it would leave Aaron Loup as the only other left-handed reliever currently working in the Toronto bullpen.
“The second pitch to Davis, kind of felt a little tug in the groin,” Cecil told reporters after the Blue Jays held on for a 4-0 win over the Orioles. “And then the next pitch a bit of a bigger one. I don’t think it popped, just the pain was worse.
“It happened to me in 2011, kind of the same thing, just felt it and then that was it. It still hurt on certain things I did. Right now it just feels kind of tight and we’ll see how it feels tomorrow.”
Dustin McGowan replaced Cecil, with the count 1-2 on Davis.
With two Baltimore runners on base and two out, McGowan threw one pitch to strike out Davis and get the Blue Jays out of the inning.
McGowan returned for the ninth and retired the side to earn the first Major League save of his career.