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Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale suffered a fractured pinkie in his throwing hand after he was hit by a comebacker against the New York Yankees on Sunday.
UPDATE (Monday, July 18 at 5:50 p.m. ET): Sale underwent successful surgery on Monday.
Chris Sale underwent an open reduction and internal fixation of a left fifth finger proximal phalanx fracture today. The procedure was performed by Dr. Matthew Leibman at the Newton-Wellesley Outpatient Surgery Center in Wellesley, MA.
In the bottom of the first inning at Yankee Stadium, Aaron Hicks struck a line drive that ricocheted off of Sale's left hand and into right field for an RBI single. Sale immediately came off the field as he flashed his painful-looking finger injury to manager Alex Cora.
Chris Sale had to leave the game after a line drive came back and hit him directly in the hand ð³ @BRWalkoff (via @TalkinYanks)pic.twitter.com/wachEIi0EX
The southpaw exited the game with the Yankees leading 3-0 and was replaced by Hirokazu Sawamura. The Sox later announced that Sale had suffered a broken left pinkie. A timeline for his recovery was not immediately provided.
Sale, 33, was making just his second start after a stress fracture in his rib cage, along with a non-baseball medical issue, kept him off of a major league mound for the first three months of the season. He suffered the rib injury while working out during MLB's lockout.
Sale threw 78 pitches over five scoreless innings against the Tampa Bay Rays in his return on Tuesday. His outing on Sunday came to an end after 24 pitches, as he gave up three runs (two earned) on two hits and recorded two outs.
Sale has made just 11 regular-season starts since mid-August of 2019. He went 5-1 with a 3.16 ERA over nine starts in his return from Tommy John surgery last season.