Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo could hardly contain his disappointment Sunday after lifting Shelby Miller from his start against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fifth inning with tightness in his right forearm - an alarming development that prompted the club to send him for an MRI on Monday.
"It's really unfortunate," Lovullo told reporters, including Scott Bordow of AZCentral.com, after his club's 6-2 loss at Chase Field. "Shelby has been throwing the ball extremely well. You just hate to have a situation like this pop up."
Miller, who has never experienced forerarm tightness before, was cruising through four innings, limiting the Dodgers to just three hits, but his command completely vanished when he came out for the fifth. After issuing a pair of walks to open the frame and a double to Corey Seager, Miller threw just one pitch to Justin Turner before a teammate signaled to the bench that something might be wrong, prompting Lovullo to head out to check on him with a trainer and ultimately remove him from the game.
"You hate to take somebody off the mound like that but I just didn't like a couple of things that I heard," Lovullo said. "It just jumped up on him in the fifth inning. He felt the forearm tightening at that point in time and that was enough for me."
Still, Miller - who managed a 3.50 ERA through his first three starts this season after laboring through a disastrous 2016 campaign - was optimistic Sunday with his MRI looming.
"I don't think it's that big of an issue," said Miller. "More so one of those things that flare up when you're out there. Physically I don't think there's any damage done at all. I feel like I'll probably feel better tomorrow."
