Roman Anthony is out for the foreseeable future and is no longer on the Wild Card roster after he left Boston's loss to the New York Yankees with a right hand injury Tuesday night.
Batting leadoff as the Red Sox designated hitter in his playoff debut, Anthony struck out in both of his at-bats against Cam Schlittler before getting lifted for a pinch hitter with his team trailing 2-0 in the sixth inning. New York took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series with a 9-0 victory.
Manager Chad Tracy said Anthony felt discomfort in his right hand after a couple of checked swings. The 22-year-old Anthony missed 101 games from May 5 to Aug. 29 with an injury to the same hand. Tracy said it doesn't appear the latest injury is necessarily related, as it involves muscles in the wrist.
"After I came back, the hand was never really fully 100%, kind of as you would expect," Anthony told reporters on Wednesday. "Last night just felt a little more intense, little bit more harsh than past swings have and lingered a little bit longer than the ones I was used to had. So it just was super alarming and got to the point where it was tough to grip a bat."
The manager said that after the game, Anthony returned to Boston for imaging on his hand, which found "additional damage to some muscles in his wrist that weren't there before."
Anthony is not in Wednesday night's lineup, when the Red Sox must win to extend their season. Jahmai Jones is leading off at DH in Anthony's absence.
Wednesday night, the team announced that infielder Curtis Mead replaced Anthony on the Wild Card roster. That means that if the Red Sox advance to the ALDS, Anthony would be out for that round as well.
One of baseball's premier prospects when he arrived in the majors last year, Anthony batted .245 with five home runs, 15 RBIs and a .735 OPS in 55 regular-season games this season.
"He's a really good player. Certainly not something we wanted to happen and having him in there is important. But can't reiterate enough, we've dealt with things like this all year. But the show goes on, you've got to play tonight and be able to win a ballgame," Tracy said.
The manager added that it is not yet known if Anthony will need surgery.
Sonny Gray is on the mound for the Red Sox in Game 2, which is scheduled to start at 8:15 p.m.
