KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Luis Robert Jr. ripped a Will Smith slider to the left-field corner, and the Chicago White Sox center fielder rounded first on his way to second for a ninth-inning double.
That’s when he started hopping.
Robert made it to second but exited Friday’s game against the Kansas City Royals with a right hip flexor injury.
“Right now, we’ll wait until tomorrow,” manager Pedro Grifol said of Robert’s status. “There’s best-case news and then obviously the other side of that too. We’ll wait. I’m not going to comment on any of that stuff until he gets X-rays tomorrow morning.”
Robert missed a portion of the 2021 season after suffering a grade 3 strain (complete tear) of the right hip flexor.
“I wasn’t here when that happened, I haven’t dug deep into any of his injuries,” Grifol said. “He’s been healthy since I’ve been here. It’s unfortunate to have one of the best players in the game go down like that. He’s hard to replace.
“You don’t replace a guy like him, but at the same time, next man up. We have to go out and continue to fight and do the things we need to do.”
It was the second injury of the game for the Sox in a 2-1 loss to the Royals in front of 10,592 at Kauffman Stadium. Reliever John Brebbia left in the sixth inning with right calf soreness after fielding a grounder near the mound and throwing out Salvador Perez at the plate.
It was a day filled with injury news for the Sox, who placed designated hitter Eloy Jiménez on the 10-day injured list with a left adductor strain. That move is retroactive to Tuesday.
Jiménez is the No. 4 hitter in the Sox lineup. And now the Sox await further word on their No. 3 hitter, Robert.
“It’s obviously devastating,” second baseman Nicky Lopez said. “You never want to see someone go down, you don’t want to see injuries. And for one of the best players in baseball, you see that, it gets you down.
“That guy is so exciting to watch. You just hate to see it. We’ll pray for the best.”
Brebbia missed time during spring training with a right calf strain. This instance, Grifol said, “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. We don’t anticipate it being long, but we’ll see.”
Coming off an All-Star and Silver Slugger Award-winning season, Robert is 6-for-28 (.214) with two home runs and four RBIs in seven games.
The Sox are already in a hole at 1-6. And now crucial injuries are added to the list.
“The worst thing we can do — and this is not going to happen — is feel sorry for ourselves,” Grifol said. “We are not going to do that. That I promise you.
“We are going to go out there and compete our asses off and play baseball the right way and see what happens.”
