The Tampa Bay Rays picked up a valuable game on the Red Sox in the wild-card standings with Saturday's 6-5, 11-inning win but have lost closer Kyle Farnsworth for an undetermined amount of time.
Farnsworth entered in the ninth with the Rays up 5-3 and allowed back-to-back home runs to Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jacoby Ellsbury, a double to Dustin Pedroia and a walk to Adrian Gonzalez.
Manager Joe Maddon pulled him at that point, because he sensed Farnsworth's right elbow, which forced him to miss a week of games last month, was troubling his closer.
"I could just tell," Maddon said. "You could see there wasn't that same jump on his pitch his pitch and there wasn't the same depth on his breaking ball."
The plan is to shut Farnsworth down for a couple of games then go day by day after that. Farnsworth said he is not currently scheduled for an MRI and believes it's nothing more than inflammation.
"Just give it a couple of days, go from there and hope it gets better," Farnsworth said. "I need to be out there for the team. Right now it (stinks). I know I'm not doing the job right now."
Farnsworth said it's the same problem that surfaced on the Rays' last homestand.
"It definitely got better and then it got a little worse," he said. "And now it's definitely become an issue. Not too bad an issue, but definitely something I can't finish my pitches on, so it's going to be an issue. We'll give it some rest and hopefully be ready."
Farnsworth, who has a career-best 23 saves, has blown his last two opportunities, allowing a total of three home runs. He's allowed nine hits and five runs in his last five outings.
He said he expects to be able to pitch again this season.
"Oh yeah, that's the plan," he said. "I definitely don't want to be out any longer than a couple of days."
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