Carrasco imaging comes back negative, suffered right elbow contusion

CLEVELAND– Imaging on Carlos Carrasco’s right elbow came back negative, meaning the right-hander  suffered a bruised elbow rather than a break.

On Saturday, Carrasco was hit with a line drive off the bat of Minnesota’s Joe Mauer in the second inning. He is expected to be treated for swelling and range of motion in the coming days and will be reevaluated on Wednesday. But considering the ball that hit Carrasco was traveling at 99.6 mph, the Indians “dodged a bullet” in the words of manager Terry Francona.

“They’ll talk about when he can start to throw, but that won’t be until Wednesday,” he said prior to Cleveland’s Monday night showdown with the Chicago White Sox. “He still got hit really hard and there’s some trauma. So, we dodged a huge bullet. The hope would be, once he gets the swelling out of there, that he’ll come quick because it’s a bruise. It could have been a lot worse.”

Carrasco currently holds a 4.24 ERA and is 8-5 on the year.