May 4, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Boston Red Sox left fielder Roman Anthony (19) is checked on by interim manager Chad Tracy (17) and the trainer in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
Even on a night where they won a game with a late rally, the Boston Red Sox had a dark cloud hanging over them.
Second-year outfielder Roman Anthony left the game in the second inning after injuring his hand on a foul ball in his first at-bat of the night. The good news: X-rays were negative. The bad news: Boston evidently wasn’t satisfied enough with that result to keep him on the road trip in Detroit.
On Tuesday, Anthony will travel back to Boston to see a specialist. He might be back by Wednesday to finish out the road trip, but after missing four games last month with an upper back injury, it’s clear this second season in the league is testing Anthony in ways few could have expected.
What Anthony, manager Chad Tracy said Monday night
Judging by the reactions from the clubhouse on Monday night, it doesn’t seem as though Anthony and the Red Sox are out of the woods yet in terms of avoiding a stint on the injured list.
“I’ve never dealt with a hand (injury), so I’ll leave that up to the hand specialist to see what’s going on,” Anthony said, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “As far as X-rays being negative — or looking negative — I’m not exactly sure how an X-ray works, but that’s a good sign for sure.”
Interim manager Chad Tracy not ruling out Anthony returning for Wednesday’s series finale was a good omen, but far from a guarantee.
“The whole point is to get him back with our specialist to see him and see how he is,” Tracy said, per Cotillo. “If everything’s good, we’ll get him back here. But we’ve got to get him back there first.”
Just as Anthony was starting to heat up at the plate, he’s dealing with another injury scare. You hate to put the injury-prone label on anyone, but it’s hard to avoid the thought in Anthony’s case, even if this hand issue is different than the oblique strain that ended his year last year or the upper back pain from a couple of weeks ago.
“It’s not a good feeling,” Anthony said, per Cotillo. “Just got to deal with it, get through it and get back out there as soon as I can.”
