NEW YORK (AP) — Josh Sborz, who earned the save to finish off the Texas Rangers’ first World Series championship last season, was placed on the injured list Sunday due to right shoulder fatigue.
The move is retroactive to Thursday and the Rangers said before Sunday’s game against the Yankees that Sborz is headed back to Dallas to get examined by Dr. Greg Pearl, a thoracic outlet specialist.
Sborz is 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA in 16 relief appearances this season sandwiched around a pair of IL stints for a right rotator cuff strain. The right-hander made three appearances before going on the IL April 7-24 and then made two more before missing nearly two months.
In nine outings since returning from the second stint July 4, Sborz had a 4.22 ERA.
Last season, Sborz was 6-7 with a 5.50 ERA in 44 appearances. In 10 postseason appearances, he allowed one run and pitched the final 2 1/3 innings in the Rangers’ 5-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 5 of the World Series.
Besides placing Sborz on the injured list again, the Rangers designated Brock Burke for assignment a day after he allowed four runs in an 8-0 loss in the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Burke has a 9.22 ERA in 13 appearances this season and Texas has seven days to release him or outright the left-hander to the minors. Burke made eight appearances after missing two months with a broken right hand he suffered while punching a door in the visiting clubhouse in Houston.
Burke, who debuted with Texas in 2019, was 5-3 with a 4.37 ERA in 53 outings last season.
To replace Sborz and Burke, the Rangers recalled pitcher Walter Pennington from Triple-A Round Rock and selected the contract of pitcher Matt Festa from Round Rock.
Pennington was acquired from Kansas City for Michael Lorenzen on July 29 and made his Texas debut last Sunday against Boston. In the minors this season, the left-hander is 7-3 with a 2.13 ERA in 39 appearances.
Festa made one appearance for the Mets on June 30. The right-hander signed a minor league contract with Texas on July 8, was granted his release on Aug. 1 and re-signed with the team on a minor league deal.
Festa is 2-3 with a 4.66 ERA and has made 89 of his 90 career appearances with the Seattle Mariners.
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