Red Sox lose Hunter Dobbins for the season following ACL injury

Image courtesy of The Boston Globe

The Red Sox will be without rookie starting pitcher Hunter Dobbins for the rest of the season.

Dobbins was diagnosed with a torn right ACL that he suffered covering first base during the Red Sox dramatic comeback win over the Rays on Friday night.

The injury occurred as he was covering the bag, at first looking to retire Rays speedster Chandler Simpson. Dobbins caught the throw from first baseman Abraham Toro cleanly, and he stepped on the bag with his left foot. The trainer and Alex Cora ran out of the dugout to check on the rookie, who was limping and bent over.

“I knew what happened,” Dobbins said about his ACL injury. “You’re trying to come out here and compete with these guys, trying to win games, and then just to know that you’re done for the year is pretty tough.”

Dobbins returned to the mound and threw a warmup pitch, but grabbed at his knee after he landed following his delivery. He was removed from the game, and reliever Jorge Alcala replaced him with two outs in the inning. The 25-year-old had allowed two hits and a walk with two strikeouts in the outing before he was removed.

Friday night’s outing was Dobbins' first start since June 20, when he was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow strain. Dobbins missed 18 games due to the elbow strain and will now finish the season with a 4-1 record, a 4.13 ERA in 13 games (11 starts), and 45 strikeouts compared to 17 walks, along with a 1.28 WHIP over 61 innings.

With Dobbins on the shelf, the Red Sox are down a starter who was expected to make an important impact on the team in the second half of the season. Boston will need to tap into their internal depth and will start by adding Fitts, who will replace Dobbins in the starting rotation.

Dobbins is disappointed his season has come to a screeching halt but was happy to learn the Red Sox came back and defeated the Rays in walk-off fashion.

“Probably outside of the big disappointment of not being able to pitch again this year, missing the home run last night was pretty tough,” said Dobbins to reporters Saturday afternoon. “I was actually in the MRI machine and they were giving me score updates in between each one. And then right after the last one, they’re like, ‘We think you’d like to hear this. Y’all just won by a walkoff.’ So that was pretty cool to hear that the guys picked me up that way.”