ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shortstop Zach Neto will have tests on his surgically repaired right shoulder after he made an error and abruptly left the Los Angeles Angels‘ game against the Boston Red Sox in the ninth inning Tuesday night.
Neto bobbled Romy Gonzalez‘s grounder to short before firing his throw over the head of first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. The Angels’ rising star quickly bent over in pain, and he left the game after consulting with the training staff.
After the Angels won 3-2 on Christian Moore‘s 10th-inning homer, Neto said he jammed his right shoulder while sliding headfirst into second on a failed stolen base attempt in the eighth inning.
“I wasn’t feeling good (and) probably should have taken myself out of the game,” Neto said. “But being the competitor that I am, I wanted to try to gut it out. There’s a time and place to be a hero, and there’s a time and place to get out of the game, and that was probably the time to get out of the game. … It’s feeling good (now). I mean, it’s not feeling great, but we’re going to see how I feel tomorrow morning, and hopefully I come feeling great.”
Neto believes he will have an MRI exam on Wednesday.
“When he made that throw, we just didn’t like the way it looked, so we took him out for cautionary (reasons),” Angels acting manager Ray Montgomery said. “We weren’t going to let him go back out there after that.”
Neto injured his right shoulder last September and underwent surgery that forced him to miss the first three weeks of the season. He has been one of the Angels’ best players for the second straight year, batting .278 with 12 homers, 29 RBIs and an .820 OPS.
“There’s always a concern with it being the shoulder I just had my surgery on, but I’m going to be hopeful,” Neto said.
Los Angeles closer Kenley Jansen escaped the jam created by Neto’s error, keeping the game tied 1-1. Marcelo Mayer drove in a run for Boston in the 10th, but Moore walked it off with his second homer in three innings.
