Detroit Tigers' Joey Wentz leaves second career start with left shoulder strain

The blows keep coming to the Detroit Tigers pitching staff.

Joey Wentz, in the middle of his second career start, left the game with an injury with no outs in the fifth inning.

The left-handed pitcher was facing Trevor Larnach to lead off the inning, threw a cutter for a called strike to make the count 2-2 and immediately catcher Tucker Barnhart began walking out to the mound and  signaled to the dugout and to have trainer Doug Teter and manager A.J. Hinch come look at him.

"Another day, another injury," Hinch said after the game. "It's more his neck kind, at his collar bone and he felt a little sensation in his shoulder, but the original area is in his neck.

"He didn't feel a thing until the fifth, went out and during his warmups got a little sensation ... but I feel bad for him, he'd settled in really nicely."

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After a short discussion, Wentz left the field and was replaced by Willy Peralta.

A few minutes after he left the game, the Tigers announced Wentz suffered a left shoulder strain. Wentz was called up as the extra man on the roster and started the second game of Tuesday's day-night doubleheader. He was sent back to Triple-A Toledo after the game. 

"We had a little bit of a long inning I felt like, his first fastball was 90 (mph) which I didn't think anything of," Barnhart said. "The next tone was 88 and I told myself if I see it one more time I'm going to go out there.

"The next one was 87, went out to check on him and unfortunately he wasn't feeling very good.

It's another blow to the Tigers rotation that is already missing Eduardo Rodriguez, Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Michael Pineda and Tyler Alexander from the rotation.

Not to mention Spencer Turnbull, who is still recovering from Tommy John surgery.

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Wentz, who struggled in his MLB debut vs. Oakland earlier this month, allowed just one hit through four innings, retiring 12 of 13 batters with just 51 pitches (34 strikes) including four strikeouts with six swings and misses.

Hinch said no roster move will be announced until he is evaluated and looked at by the team doctor, but even if he is uninjured, he will be the 27th man returned to Triple-A Toledo.

"He threw a ton of strikes, pounded the zone got ahead of guys and was able to use the majority of his pitches, all his pitches in the strike zone," Barnhart said. "It's just a shame that he got banged up there."

Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on twitter at @realtonygarcia.