Henderson Alvarez leaves game with “stiff” elbow

The elbows plague has struck the Miami Marlins, again.

One day after losing Carter Capps and less than a month after losing Jose Fernandez, the Marlins lost another pitcher to an elbow injury.

Henderson Alvarez left the Marlins 10-5 win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday after 5-innings with due to right elbow stiffness.

The Marlins decided to remove Alvarez for precautionary reasons and don’t believe the injury to be serious:

"“He said he had a little tightness in his elbow, and he said he could pitch,” Redmond said. “But we took him out for precautionary reasons.“I think he’s fine. But we’ll see over the next couple days. He wanted to keep pitching, but we wanted to make sure it didn’t become anything serious.”"

While the Marlins don’t believe the injury is anything serious, I believe it’s important to note that Alvarez said he also felt the same stiffness in a start on May 11th against the San Diego Padres. He labored in that outing, allowing five runs in just four innings of work.

Obviously, with the team losing Jose Fernandez earlier this month to a serious elbow injury, the team is going to take every precaution to protect Alvarez’s valuable arm.

While the news scared Marlins fans on Tuesday night, Alvarez is confident that he will be making his next start:

"“Yes, I’ll be fine for the next start,” Alvarez said. “Throughout the game, I told them I wasn’t feeling well. It was a little tight.”"

Over the next couple of days, the Marlins will keep an eye on Alvarez and make sure he is good to go. Last season, Alvarez missed the first two months of the season due to shoulder inflammation.