Carlos Carrasco exits game with left hamstring inury

Carlos Carrasco exited Sunday afternoon's game against the Tigers during the bottom of the third inning with what looked like an injury to his left knee, following an awkward attempt to cover first base.

* * *

UPDATE: Carrasco officially left the game with a left hamstring injury. We still have no timetable or severity, but this is much better than news than hearing something went wrong with his knee.

Carlos Carrasco left today's game with a left hamstring injury.

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) April 24, 2016

* * *

There is no news yet on the severity of the injury, but he collapsed to the ground, failed once in an attempt to get up, and then put zero weight on his left leg as he was helped into the dugout for a couple minutes, and then brought to the locker room. He also clutched his hamstring at one point, so it's possible that's where he suffered the injury, and/or that he injured both his knee and hamstring.

Carrasco had allowed only one base runner through 2.2 innings at the time of his injury, lowering his ERA for the season to 2.45. He was replaced by Trevor Bauer, who recorded the final out of the inning and will presumably be asked to work multiple innings.

Carrasco had a couple up-and-down years, eventually leading to a stint in the bullpen in 2014. Since rejoining the starting rotation on August 10 of that season, Carrasco had posted a 2.98 ERA in 43 starts entering today, with 10.32 strikeouts per nine innings. He has been one of the very best pitchers in baseball during that time, even if those outside Cleveland have been slow to notice.

Losing Carrasco for an extended period of time would be a brutal blow to the Indians' chances of winning the AL Central.

Updates on Carrasco's injury will be provided as they become available.