Tampa Bay Rays right fielder Manuel Margot was carted off the field with a sprained right knee in the ninth inning in Monday’s 4-2 loss to the visiting New York Yankees in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Margot attempted to make a leaping catch on an RBI triple by Aaron Hicks that snapped a 2-2 tie, but the ball just went over his leaping try. He crashed into the wall, fell on his back at the warning track and was carted off the field a few minutes later.
After the game, Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said Margot is headed to the injured list and the injury doesn’t look good.
“Pretty unfortunate. Manny’s such a good player and such a good guy,” said Cash. “It’s kind of a pitcher injury that goes down for a while. I’m guessing Manny’s going to miss some significant time.”
Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan was in the training room when the injury occurred. “It’s awful,” McClanahan said. “We saw the play happen and just you could feel the air sucked out of there. We’re just praying. It’s unfortunate and we’re hoping for the best news possible.”
Margot hit a tying RBI infield single in the eighth off Clay Holmes after Tampa Bay’s Isaac Paredes singled to end a no-hit bid by Gerrit Cole.
Margot is batting .302 with three homers and 27 RBIs in 51 games this season and batted .397 in May. Margot also missed 10 games last month with a strained right hamstring sustained on headfirst slide during a stolen base against the Los Angeles Angels on May 9.
Margot was not the only Tampa Bay outfielder to get injured on Monday.
Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier exited after the second inning because of left hip inflammation and Cash said Kiermaier is also headed to the injured list.
“It’s unfortunate because they’re such key pieces to our club and we just have to put our heads together and figure a way to overcome it,” Cash said, “but it’s pretty frustrating right now.”
Kiermaier was replaced by Brett Phillips after striking out against Cole for the second out of the second inning.
Kiermaier was injured in a game against the Yankees for the second time in less than a week. In Wednesday’s 4-3 loss at New York, he exited after the second inning because of a sore left calf and Achilles and sat out the next two games.
Kiermaier is batting .229 with seven homers and 17 RBIs in 56 games this season.
