Why Roman Anthony (hand injury) is flying to Boston to see Red Sox specialist Tuesday

DETROIT — The initial read on the hand/wrist injury that caused Roman Anthony to leave Monday’s Red Sox win in the second inning was generally positive. Still, there’s enough concern that Anthony will return home Tuesday for further testing.

Interim manager Chad Tracy said that Anthony, who left a 5-4 Red Sox victory with “right wrist discomfort” after hurting himself on a first-inning foul ball, had X-rays that came back negative. As a precaution, Anthony will fly to Boston in the morning and likely have an MRI during an appointment with a team hand specialist.

“Imaging tonight was negative, but we are gonna send him back to Boston to see our hand specialist just to let him look at it and make sure,” Tracy said. “I think the whole point is to get him back with our specialist to see him and see how he is. If everything’s good, we’ll get him back here. But we’ve got to get him back there first.”

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Notably, Tracy did not rule out the possibility that Anthony returns to play in Detroit over the next two days before the Red Sox return home for a seven-game homestand that starts Thursday. The injury, Anthony said, is most prevalent on the top of his right (throwing) hand and happened when he fouled off a Tyler Holton pitch on a check swing in the first inning.

“I just took a swing and it didn’t feel good,” Anthony said. “As I came back in and went under to continue to swing, it just was painful.”

Anthony ran the bases after grounding into a fielder’s choice and then played defense in the bottom of the first inning. By the top of the second, the Red Sox had Masataka Yoshida replace Anthony in left field. Anthony then had X-rays “right after it happened.”

“As far as having a feel for what it may be, I’m not sure,” Anthony said. “I know when it comes to the hand, there’s a lot of little things in the hand I have no idea about. I’ll have a better idea tomorrow.

“I’ve never dealt with a hand (injury) so I’ll leave that up to the hand specialist to see what’s going on. As far as X-rays being negative — or looking negative — I’m not exactly sure how an X-ray works, but that’s a good sign for sure."

Anthony was somewhat downcast and kept his hands in his front sweatshirt pocket as he spoke. When he reached for his phone in his locker, he had no brace or cast on his hand, despite the pain lingering.

“It feels the same, as expected, for the most part,” Anthony said. “I didn’t expect it to feel like it was going to clear up in a few hours.”

Anthony is hopeful he can avoid the injured list after spending the final month of the season — and Boston’s three-day postseason run — sidelined with an oblique issue last year. He also missed four games late last month with upper back soreness before returning last weekend.

“It’s not a good feeling,” Anthony said. “Just got to deal with it, get through it and get back out there as soon as I can.”

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• Roman Anthony leaves Red Sox game with ‘right wrist discomfort’ after swing
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