Houston Astros pitcher Aaron Sanchez is reportedly headed to the injured list with a sore pectoral muscle.
The 27-year-old right-hander gave up four hits and three runs with two walks in a season-low 2 1/3 innings as the Astros beat the Detroit Tigers 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Sanchez told reporters that he has been dealing with the injury for six or seven starts, but didn’t believe it was serious.
“For me, it’s been an ongoing thing, I’ve been trying to pitch through it,” he said, adding he doesn’t believe it’s a long-term issue.
“It’s been up and down and, obviously, today when (velocity) drops to where it is there’s no sense in trying to push through it, especially knowing where the team’s going and I want to be part of that going down the stretch, so best bet is to figure out what’s going on and work from there
Astros manager A.J. Hinch added the former Toronto Blue Jays ace “didn’t look like himself” Tuesday.
“The reason I took him out is I saw a little decline in (velocity),” said Hinch.
“He started going to his breaking ball all the time, we want him to throw more breaking balls, but it looked like he was just trying to spin the ball in there.”
Sanchez was making his fourth start since a trade from Toronto. After throwing six no-hit innings in his debut with Houston, Sanchez now has a 4.82 ERA.
The Blue Jays sent Sanchez, right-handed reliever Joe Biagini and minor-league outfielder Cal Stevenson to the Astros for outfielder Derek Fisher at the trade deadline.
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