PITTSBURGH — Detroit Tigers right-hander Matt Manning threw a slider to Colin Moran with two outs in the third inning. The ball came right back at him off Moran’s bat with a 101.5 mph exit velocity, drilling the 23-year-old rookie in the left knee.
Catcher Dustin Garneau completed the play to conclude the third, but Manning did not return for the fourth inning. He departed from Wednesday’s series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a left knee contusion.
Manning seems to have avoided the injured list.
“X-rays are negative,” Hinch said after Wednesday’s 5-1 win at PNC Park. “He is day-to-day with the contusion. He’s got some time off before his next start. We’ve got the day off tomorrow, the weekend and then Monday off, so we can push him back a little bit. We’ll see how he feels when we get back home, but he’s checked out OK so far.”
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Right-hander Drew Hutchison took over for the fourth.
Manning allowed one run on four hits over three innings. He did not concede a walk and struck out four batters, throwing 35 of 52 pitches for strikes. Some of his best work came with his curveball (four called strikes) and slider (two swings and misses, two called strikes).
“It’s a quick night for him,” Hinch said. “I’m glad he’s OK. But he was getting a little better and a little better as he was going. I’m disappointed for him that he got smoked and had to come out of the game, but I was happy with how he threw it up to that point.”
Manning has a 6.14 ERA with 21 walks and 39 strikeouts over 66 innings in 14 starts. The Tigers called him up June 17 from Triple-A Toledo. He was drafted No. 9 overall in 2016.
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.