After leaving Monday’s game in the 10th inning with right knee inflammation, Avisail Garcia is back in the White Sox lineup Tuesday hitting fifth and playing right field.
Garcia initially felt the inflammation — which he described as soreness and a little bit of pain — Sunday in Oakland and continued to feel it over the course of Monday night. After drawing a walk to open the 10th, Garcia was pulled from the game in an abundance of caution to determine the severity of the problem and make sure the winning run could actually run.
“By the end it was worse so that’s why they took me out because they didn’t know what was going on,” Garcia said. “In case somebody hits it down the line and they want me to go to third base and I can’t, so that’s why I made that decision. Everything’s fine. I’m fine today.”
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Garcia has carried the White Sox offense during their six-game winning streak, going 11 for 25 with two home runs during it. He has a .338/.376/.481 slash line through 34 games and a team-best .857 OPS entering Tuesday night’s game.
“It’s inflammation that’s in there that he can deal with and play,” manager Robin Ventura said. “It’s nothing that he’s going to injure it worse. We feel pretty safe about him being in there playing. The good thing is he wants to play.”