Red Sox left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, manager Alex Cora announced before Thursday’s series opener against the Mariners at Fenway Park.
“I don’t know about the timetable and all that,” Cora told reporters (including MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith) earlier Thursday afternoon, “but hopefully he’ll be back soon.”
Hernandez, who had been with Triple-A Worcester to start the season, tweaked his knee while throwing a bullpen session at Polar Park over the weekend. He was placed on the minor-league injured list this past Tuesday but is now likely headed for the 60-day injured list.
The Red Sox elected to option Hernandez to Worcester towards the end of spring training so that he could improve upon his command and mechanics while working on a starter’s schedule. Put another way, the Venezuelan-born southpaw would make his 2-3-inning start, and then use the days in between outings to work with WooSox pitching coach Paul Abbott in order to become more consistent with his delivery.
In eight appearances (seven starts) for the WooSox, Hernandez posted a 5.95 ERA and 4.42 FIP to go along with 30 strikeouts to 16 walks over 19 2/3 innings of work. Last time out against the Rochester Red Wings on May 13, the 25-year-old allowed just one unearned run on three hits, one walk, and three strikeouts across three innings pitched. He retired nine of the 13 batters he faced and 33 of the 43 pitches he threw went for strikes.
Abbott told Cora it was Hernandez’s best start of the season in regards to repeating his delivery.
“Forget the results,” said Cora. “Just repeating his delivery and getting him to where we wanted him to get. The fastball the last two or three, it was on point. He was taking the work that he was doing on the side in between starts to the game. And it sucks for the kid. But we know he’s going to bounce back and he’s going to be OK.”
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