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LOS ANGELES — A day after the Yankees got three players back from the injured list, they sent two more players to the IL.
Outfielder Greg Allen (right hip flexor strain) and reliever Ryan Weber (right forearm strain) landed on the IL on Saturday after both were injured Friday night in a loss to the Dodgers.
The Yankees recalled Oswaldo Cabrera and left-hander Nick Ramirez to take their spots on the active roster.
Cabrera had just been optioned to Triple-A on Wednesday night, but after flying from Newark to Los Angeles early Saturday morning, he entered the game as a defensive replacement and then hit a home run in the ninth inning to create some extra breathing room in a 6-3 Yankees victory.
Weber underwent an MRI exam on Saturday morning, but was still awaiting the results before the Yankees and Dodgers played.
He said his forearm was “barking” on Saturday, a day after he threw two innings. The right-hander said he felt it on a pitch in his second inning of work and told manager Aaron Boone when he got back to the dugout.
Though Weber has never dealt with something like this before in his career, he said that’s what made the wait for the MRI results “nerve-racking.”
Forearm strains are often a precursor to Tommy John surgery.
“Something’s definitely going on,” said Weber, a journeyman who had carved out a valuable bullpen role over the last month. “Hopefully a couple weeks at best. But we obviously all know what it could be. But I’m not going to think of any of that right now.”
Allen, meanwhile, felt a “grabbing” on a strikeout in his first at-bat Friday. Boone said Allen was still “pretty sore” Saturday and will undergo testing on Monday in New York.
It’s the second time in the past week the Yankees have lost a center fielder to the IL. Harrison Bader suffered a strained hamstring in Seattle.
Now without a natural center fielder on their roster, the Yankees will likely lean on utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa to get the bulk of the playing time there until Bader returns. Aaron Judge has seen time in center in the past, but Boone said he was “a little reluctant” to use him there now, declining to get into why.
“Doesn’t mean I won’t,” Boone said. “I just don’t necessarily want to do it right now.”
The Yankees would not come out and say it, but it sounds as if Luis Severino may have been tipping his pitches Friday night while he was getting shelled for seven runs across four innings.
“We’re constantly monitoring all of our guys,” is all Boone said when asked directly about it. “Try to make sure we’re as clean as possible.”
Regardless, Boone said Severino was fine physically despite his fastball velocity dropping 2.3 mph from his season average Friday night.
“He has games like that all the time when he’s living in the mid-90s,” Boone said. “It’s not a physical thing.”
Giancarlo Stanton was out of the lineup Saturday, a day after returning from the IL, but Boone said he came through the game Friday fine.
